Retirement time: Veteran kumkis to call it a day

Jumbos Paari, aged 37, and Sujay, aged 48, which were maintained at the Chadivayal camp will reach Varagaliyar camp, Top Slip in the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) and Theppakadu elephant camp in Mudhumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in a couple of days.

“They will instead be replaced by two other kumkis, John, 26, and Cheran, 31, from MTR,” said AMN Siva, Forest Ranger, Boluvampatti Range in the Coimbatore Forest Division.

Paari and Sujay will be shifted once the forest veterinarian certifies them as fit for travel. “The animals will be examined on Friday. They are most likely to set off on a journey through the arduous hill route to MTR and ATR on Saturday (March 31),” said Siva. 

Paari is a well-behaved animal and has tamed many ferocious wild elephants along with his long-time companion kumki Nanjan. When Nanjan breathed his last after a 

prolonged illness at the age of 57 in 2014, forest officials brought Sujay from the Mudumalai reserve.

“Unfortunately Paari and Sujay refused to bond well. As they remained incompatible, operations to drive away straying elephants became tough for the Forest department. Their lack of co-ordination also resulted in them suffering injuries in wild elephant attacks,” said a senior Forest department official. 

Sujay lost his tusk when a wild elephant entered the Chadivayal camp and attacked it on January 17, 2017. Despite this, Sujay partnered with Paari in an operation to drive away a tusker that had killed four persons, including a 12-year-old girl in Vellalore, in June 2017. 

“Both these elephants will henceforth won’t be deployed from driving operations. Instead, they would be used for elephant ‘safari’ or other purposes in their new habitats,” said Siva.

With the end of the 48day special camp for Kumki elephants on Wednesday, forest officials commenced arrangements to translocate the animals. Forest department veterinarian N S Manoharan said both Paari and Sujay are in good health and fit for translocation. 

“It’s the heavy traffic on the hill route in Nilgiris that is causing us concern. Both kumkis will be shifted within a couple of days, when there is lean traffic,” said Manoharan. The camp in Coimbatore was set up at Chadivayal in 2012 following rising incidents of human-animal conflicts. 

“If people in villages abutting forest boundaries are able to live in peace, it’s because of the kumkis involved in guarding the jungles,” said a Forest department official.