Forest dept may suspend plans to capture rogue wild tuskers

Ajay A Desai, a consultant of Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) is wary of capturing and translocating the jumbos. He was roped in by the Forest Department to observe and suggest ways and means to control the conflict in Coimbatore.

The two tuskers, identified by locals as Vinayagan and Chinna Thambi have been frequently raiding crops causing extensive damage to farmers in Coimbatore outskirts.

“They both have become habituated to crop raiding. The jumbos can be subjected to ‘negative conditioning’ by blocking their way out of the forest areas, either by deploying kumki’s or other methods,” he said.

Forest Department staff said that Vinayagan weighs more than 4.5 tonnes, much larger than the kumki’s. “So even the kumki’s are fearful and shy away during the chasing operation. More and larger in size kumkis needs to be deployed, but a few expert ones are in musth phase. It was hence Wasim, a Kumki from MTR hasn’t been brought down to Coimbatore,” said an official of the forest department.

Also, the undulating terrain, which may even endanger the life of an elephant, has worked out against capturing the animals. Ajai Desai has suggested that the jumbos should be habituated to change its course of movement to remain inside the jungle as capturing them will prove ‘risky’.

Meanwhile, Vijayalakshmi (45), wife of Manikkam from Arivozhi Nagar in Therkkupalayam, who was hospitalised following an elephant attack a few days ago, succumbed to injuries on Thursday.

She was heading to Thudiyalur market to sell her farm produce in the early morning hours on 26 November, when one of the elephants from a herd, being driven into the jungle by the forest department came her way and attacked the woman. She was admitted to Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital (CMCH), where she died without responding to treatment.