Kerala’s troublemaking tusker Arikompan still comes for rice Premium

Wildlife experts feel the ongoing experiment with translocation of rice-loving elephant Arikompan will serve as a blueprint for the future handling of human-wildlife conflict

Late on May 25, Arikompan made an attempt to return home. Forest officials tracked him to within 100 metres of a human habitation in Kumily, a village of spice and tea plantations, spread across a valley, in the Idukki district of Kerala. The lone tusker, now 36 years old, who was once part of a herd of 12, soon returned to the deep forests of Periyar Tiger Reserve in Thekkady, on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, 8 km away. For a change, the animal, partially blind in its right eye, caught after trampling seven people to death, injuring many more, and destroying at least 25 homes and shops, didn’t cause any damage to people or property. He did try to get some rice en route, but left without it.

Arikompan, derived from the Malayalam ari meaning rice and kompan meaning tusker, has developed both a personality and a reputation over the years, much like other elephants, Chakkakompan, a wild tusker who loves jackfruit in the same region, and Arisi Raja (rice king, in Tamil) of Pollachi in Tamil Nadu. Known to love rice, Arikompan often raided homes and shops in the Santhanpara and Chinnakanal panchayats, looking for food. In March and April, during the musth period, when bulls mate, he was found with two cow elephants and two babies.

With both villagers and the forest staff fearful of the elephant’s unpredictable raids over the last 10 years, the State forest department filed an affidavit detailing the damage Arikompan had caused. Based on this, the Kerala High Court, on April 13, ordered the translocation of the animal first to Parambikulam and then to Periyar Tiger Reserve, after consulting an expert committee.

A crew of some 100 people including veterinarians, and government officials from every major department, including forest, fire, and electricity, gathered on April 29 to capture and transport Arikompan. The media was also invited. They stood by, with cameras, to shoot the event.

But the middle-aged giant, weighing no less than four tonnes, first needed to be tranquilised with five shots, and then coaxed via a ramp into a crate mounted on a truck by four Kumki elephants, trained animals involved in capturing and calming wild elephants. They tugged at a rope as thick as a forearm, and the partially sedated Arikompan walked into a truck.

A convoy made slow progress down the 100 km winding road from Chinnakanal, in the Idukki district, where the elephant had its last outing, to Kumily, in Thekkady, the gateway to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary. The police, wary of a backlash from irate villagers who had all faced trouble from the elephant, had put restrictions to people venturing out, and even imposed a curfew under Section 144 in Kumily.

The grim, tense staff were in for a surprise. People defied the restrictions imposed by the police. They lined the road on both sides, and tossed petals and shouted hoorays at Arikompan.