Unrest over gaur attacks
The Hindu
Wild gaur, which is often treated as a non-risky wild animal, has suddenly emerged as a dreaded beast. The presence of the animal is now sufficient to trigger fear and panic in human habitations close to forest areas
Purathel Chacko, a septuagenarian of Kanamala, near Kottayam, was scanning the headlines of a newspaper on his veranda when he heard a shuffling sound a few yards from his home.
He never knew he was dicing with death when he stepped out of his house. Death came in the form of a wild gaur that came charging down. The animal struck a fatal blow with its horn before Chacko could run for cover. He was the second victim to fall before the beast last Friday. In the early hours of the day, the gaur gored Thomas Antony, 63, to death at his rubber plantation.
The day turned out to be the bloodiest in the recent history of human-wildlife conflict in the State as one more person fell prey to a gaur attack. Samuel Varghese, 64, of Ayur near Kollam, was the third person to be killed by a gaur on the day.
A few days later, Vellappankunju, 55, was seriously injured in another case of gaur attack at a tribal colony, near Kuttampuzha, in Ernakulam district.
Wild gaur, which is often treated as a non-risky wild animal, has suddenly emerged as a dreaded beast. The presence of the animal is now sufficient to trigger fear and panic in human habitations close to forest areas.
The four back-to-back cases of gaur attack have put the Forest department and the State government on the back foot as the incidents triggered waves of unrest in different parts of the State.
The gaur-human conflict evolved at a time when the Forest department had partially succeeded in addressing the issue involving Arikompan, a tusker that habitually raided ration shops for feeding on rice, by translocating the animal.