Jumbo Mission: Why Kerala is trying to capture Arikomban, the 'infamous' rice-eating elephant

How do you solve a problem of an elephant gone rogue and encroaching on human settlements? If you are in Kerala, then the answer is tranquilising it, capturing it and then caging it.

After months of back and forth of debates, the Kerala government finally undertook Mission Arikomban on Friday morning around 4.30 am to capture the tusker from Chinnakanal where it has become a menace by raiding houses and public distribution shops for rice, its favourite food.

As forest officials undertake the elephant-capturing exercise, we take a look back at why the pachyderm, called Arikomban – owing to his love for rice – is being seized and the row over it.

Life of Arikomban

The elephant, who goes by the name of Arikomban owing to its love for rice (‘Ari’ meaning rice in Malayalam and ‘Komaban’ meaning tusker) is approximately 30 years in age and the area of Chinnakanal in Munnar has been its stomping ground for long.

Locals say that they first spotted Arikomban when it was approximately one-year-old and was seen with the ailing mother in the lower division of Muttukad cardamom estate of Vaikundam Plantations near Chinnakanal. Back then, the elephant was called Kallakkomban’ – the tusker who steals. In those days, there were very few houses in the area. However, the situation changed in the 200s when more people were shifted to the area by the AK Antony-led Congress government.

The tusker now frequents the 301 Colony – a human settlement, looking for rice. As its raids became a regular thing, many families moved out from the area fearing for their lives. The few that have stayed back often take shelter on the roofs of their houses. Locals say Arikomban is not a killer bull, but the rice raids have affected normal life.

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“We respect elephants in Kerala but this one has gone too far for too long now,” Sheeba George, an Idukki district collector, was quoted as telling The Guardian. “People can’t sleep at night for fear that he will come crashing through the doors or windows.”

The row over Arikomban

As Arikomban’s raids increased, he became the focus of residents and forest officials in February this year. Many residents demanded that it be captured and moved from the area owing to the damage and destruction he was causing.

Residents complained that they were fed up with the antics of the tusker and wanted it removed from the area. One such resident, a woman, was quoted as telling news agency PTI, “I live alone with my mother. One night, the elephant came there and damaged our house. Several others have faced this problem. Is human life more important than the freedom of one tusker? He is a nuisance now.”

In February, the Kerala chief wildlife warden issued an order authorising the tranquillisation and capture of the rice tusker in an elephant kraal. This angered wildlife activists and animal lovers. As Angels Nair, general secretary of NGO Animal Legal Force Integration, said, “The state government has no power to capture elephants and keep them in captivity. Moreover, if they ensure a source of food for the elephant, it would not foray into the residential and inhabited areas”

The matter quickly reached the courts and on 29 March, the Kerala High Court objected to the state government’s plan to capture and rehabilitate the elephant. At the hearing, the court pointed out that the rehabilitation is an alternative term for captivity, saying, “That’s the equivalent of Auschwitz for animals.”

Instead, the court said that the tusker may be tranquilised if it enters human settlements as a temporary measure, and ordered the fastening of a radio collar to track its movements. It also directed that a five-member committee of experts be constituted to advise the court on solutions other than capturing the elephant.

The court’s direction wasn’t appreciated and residents of 10 panchayats in Idukki even staged a hartal on the matter.

After much deliberations and discussions, the five-member committee of experts came up with the option of capturing, radio-collaring, and relocating the rice tusker to the Muthuvarachal/Orukomban falling within the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve.

However, this move was also not approved, as the government said that people living close to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in Palakkad district were objecting to moving the tusker there. Now, the court has ordered for it to be tranquilised and has given the state a week’s time to decide Arikomban’s new home.

Hunt for Arikomban is on

On Friday, the government finally initiated the mission to capture Arikomban but as the time of this report being published, the elephant remained elusive to the forest official team.

As many as 150 personnel from the police, fire and rescue services, health and motor vehicles department will assist the forest department team in the effort to find Arikomban. In addition to the man power, four kumki elephants – captive tuskers trained for use in trapping and capturing their wild brothers and sisters – have been brought in from Wayanad.

The officials are being led by Chief Conservator of Forest, R S Arun and once he is located a team by led by Chief Veterinary Officer, Arun Zachariah, is expected to tranquilise the jumbo.

Chief Conservator of Forest, R S Arun has said that if Arikomban is not found on Friday, the operation would continue on Saturday. Speaking to Manorama Online, he said that it seemed more unlikely to find the elephant today owing to the climate.

It has been reported that once Arikomban is tranquilised, he will be fitted with a satellite radio collar which was purchased from Assam forest department. The radio collar worth Rs 5 lakh will help the forest department to monitor the movements of Arikomban in the future.

Fearing crowds gathering, prohibitory orders have been put in place in Chinnakanal. However, people are flocking the region to witness the capture of the elephant. Forest Minister A K Saseendran, who met the media in the morning, had also urged people not to gather around as it may result in the elephant shying away which may make it difficult to capture the animal.

Loss of elephant habitat

Experts believe that the problem of elephants in human settlements will be far from over following Arikomban’s capture. They argue that the problem lies in the fact that elephants habitats are being encroached upon by humans.

Dr S Faizi, an ecologist and United Nations environmental negotiator, told The Leaflet, ““When we move the rogue tusker from one place to another, we are just shifting the problem to the other place.”

Dr P S Easa, elephant expert and member of the Asian Elephant Special Group, shared the same opinion. He told PTI, “Habitat is being denied to elephants,” adding that the issue is not going to end with the capture of one elephant.

A study published on Thursday highlighted the same issue. It found that tuskers have lost almost two-thirds of their habitat across Asia, owing to hundreds of years of deforestation and increasing human use of land for agriculture and infrastructure.

The research said that they are found across 13 countries in the continent but their forest and grassland habitats have been eroded by more than 64 per cent – equating to 3.3 million square kilometres of land – since the year 1700. And the one point of the report that should worry India the most is that the greatest decline in elephant habitats was in China were 94 per cent of suitable land was lost between 1700 and 2015, followed by India, which lost 86 per cent of land.

With inputs from agencies

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