Arikkomban should be trained to become a kumki

Arikkomban, originally called Arisikomban (the elephant that prefers rice), also known as Kallakomban (the elephant that steals food), has been in the news for creating panic in Kerala’s Idukki district.

The male tusker lost contact with its herd when it was just one year old and became an orphan after its mother succumbed to severe wounds in the Chinnakkanal area of the Devikulam forest range in 1987.

The elephant gradually started damaging crops and eating plantains. As the houses then were huts made of bamboo and grass, it could easily grab food with its trunk. But things changed in 2001 when about 301 landless tribals were rehabilitated there.

As the huts became concrete houses, Arikkomban started damaging houses to steal food. He damaged the ration shop in the Panniyar tea estate in Kerala about nine times in one year.

Thus, the 36-year-old Arikkomban became part of the lives of residents in these areas over time. He developed aggressive behaviour as he grew, clambered out of trenches and obliterated obstacles.

As the days passed, living peacefully became challenging for the locals. They feared the tusker could easily break into their houses and trample them. The elephant has killed about 10 people and destroyed more than 300 houses in the Chinnakkanal area.

As the Kerala Forest Department attempted to capture Arikkomban on its first mission in 2017, the jumbo managed to escape into the forests. When the government proposed the second mission in March 2023, animal rights activists opposed it. The mission was to capture and tame it to become a kumki elephant at Kodanad Elephant Centre in Ernakulam district. 

Kumkis are captive-trained elephants used in operations to capture and rescue or to provide medical treatment to an injured wild elephant.

The activists moved the Kerala High Court, persuading the court to stop the department from carrying out the operation. After hearing from an expert committee formed for this purpose, the court instructed to capture and release the elephant in a location deep inside the forest.

As directed by the court, the Kerala Forest Department tranquillised Arikkomban with the help of Arun Zachariah, a wildlife veterinarian. The rescue team comprised 150 people from the forest, police, health, and motor vehicles department. The tranquillised animal was loaded into a truck with the help of four kumki elephants and sent to the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR).

Arikkomban was released into PTR on April 29, 2023, after attaching a radio collar to monitor the animal’s movement. After monitoring the signals received from the radio collar, the Kerala Forest Department warned Tamil Nadu about the entry of the tusker into the Cumbum region, Theni district, on May 27.

As the tusker started damaging the property and killed a person in Cumbum, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department became alert and carefully tracked the elephant. With the help of the kumki elephants and the veterinarians, Arikkomban was tranquillised in the Chinna Ovulapuram reserve forest in Theni district on June 5.

Then, after a detailed discussion, the elephant was taken to Kalakad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) and released in the Muthukuzhivayal forest above the Upper Kodhayar forest area, which happens to be part of the Agasthiyamalai Biosphere Reserve. 

En route to Muthukuzhivayal, near Manimuthar Dam, a group of people from Manjolai Tea Estate protested against the release of the problematic elephant near Upper Kodhayar.

Though Muthukuzhivayal forest is about 20 kilometres from the tea estate, the workers and other people living there fear the rogue elephant, a habitual raider of human habitations. Muthukuzhivayal forest, pristine in nature, is inaccessible and highly undisturbed with plenty of water and elephant feeds such as reeds, bamboo and other edible greenery.

A few persons from the Kani tribal settlements near Papanasam and Servalar Dams of Mundanthurai, fearing any possible damage by the wild elephant, had also staged a demonstration near the Papanasam forest check post against the release of the tusker in KMTR.

Though the said forest area falls in Kanyakumari district, it has been handed over to KMTR for administrative purposes. Now, the pachyderm is being closely monitored through the GPS-aided radio collar.

It is presently accessible to the district forest officer, Kanyakumari, deputy director, Ambasamudram (KMTR), deputy director, Kalakad (KMTR), and 15 other ground-level field staff specially deputed for this purpose.

The tusker is being closely monitored by all concerned authorities in the Muthukuzhivayal forest area, where the animal is said to be slowly recovering from the sedation and feeding on the green leaves as well as drinking water from the Upper Kodhayar Dam.

A team of 10 anti-poaching watchers, four forest range officers, two deputy directors and veterinary surgeons are watching the elephant. The vigil is believed to continue for another week until it returns to normalcy.

Currently, Arikkomban is said to be at the tail end of the Upper Kodhayar Dam, where dense forests interspersed with grassland are available with plenty of water, fodder and other greenery. As the Kanyakumari district is steep on the southern side of Muthukuzhivayal, the possibility of Arikkomban moving towards that portion of the forest is very remote.

Similarly, the migration of the jumbo towards the tea estate also may not happen as the dense forest has all the basic requirements like shade, water and fodder in plenty. 

The possibility of the tusker migrating towards the Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary on its western side is considered to be brighter as the route is contiguous to Kanyakumari forests without any break or other hindrance.

At this juncture, it is worth reiterating the statement of the Kerala forest minister AK Saseendran that due to extreme affinity, the animal activists had approached the court against the Forest Department’s decision to tranquilise the jumbo and shift it to a rehabilitation Centre for training.

Then, as per the direction of the High Court, the animal was sent to PTR. But the wild elephant moved into the adjoining Cumbum region, creating such problems that hundreds of people had a narrow escape from it.

When this kind of situation arises with a rogue elephant in the habit of raiding human habitations, killing people and damaging properties, the best method would be tranquillising and taking it to the rehabilitation centre for taming and making it a kumki.

We must consider whether it is worth spending manpower, money, time and energy to keep the tusker in the forest. 

Instead, it may be quite ideal to tranquillise the animal and shift it to any elephant rehabilitation centre for taming it to become a kumki, as its service may be required at a time of repeated man-animal conflicts.

In Tamil Nadu, Chinna Thambi, another elephant, has been captured and successfully trained as a kumki. If Arikkomban settles down in the pristine forests of KMTR or moves to the nearby forests of Kerala, it is well and good.

If it starts creating problems for humans and other properties again, the best option would be to capture and send it to an Elephant Rehabilitation Centre for training to become a kumki elephant.

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth

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