About the Author:
Anandhita S R is a 1st year BALLB student from Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.
INTRODUCTION
The Arikomban issue, which over the past few months has garnered immense public debate and subsequent judicial intervention, brings forth a new instance of human-animal conflict. Arikomban has been ardently portrayed as a threat to human life by the media which has resulted in the translocation of the poor animal. The media, politicians and even the spectators are presenting the issue in a distorted manner without addressing the real “elephant in the room”.
FACTS OF THE CASE:
The wild tusker got its name “Arikomban” meaning Rice-tusker, due to his liking for rice. It has been raiding the ration shops and kitchens of the Chinnakkal village in the Idukki district of Kerala for this very delicacy, along with jaggery and salt making the lives of the tribals here miserable. Thus, following a wide protest by the residents the wild tusker has been translocated to the Periyar tiger reserve.
THE ROOT CAUSE:
It all started in 2002, when the cabinet decided to give 276 ha of land near the Chinnakkanal valley to the landless tribes in 301 colonies. The Chinnakkanal Valley has been historically called an unreserved forest which means that it was supposed to be a forest area that needed to be notified under section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Forest Act 1882 and includes unreserved land at the disposal of the government.
The rehabilitated colony was allotted to an established elephant corridor, connecting the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary with the Periyar Tiger Reserve. Instead of notifying it as a reserved forest, the government allotted this elephant territory to the people. Within a year of them starting to live in the forest, they started getting visits from a certain rice-lover.
The Rice-tusker’s “infamous” issues are as recent as 2016. Arikomban is speculated to be more than thirty years old. He has been travelling this route all his life and is thus determined to maintain his routine, in spite of the humans that occupy his path.
The report of the committee of experts appointed by the Kerala High Court on the Arikomban issue stated that traditional settlements of the Muthuvan tribal community have coexisted with the wild animals in Chinnakkanal region, but subsequent unscientific resettlements in the area has given rise to this conflict between man and nature. There is an Anayirangal Dam in the Chinnakanal region. Anayirangal means “where elephants descend”. Elephants emerge from the deep forests of the Munnar hills to the dam to quench their thirst. This is an identified traditional path for the elephants. Earlier, forest patches in these areas had direct links with the Periyar tiger reserve, and the elephants used to move freely through the path. Arikomban seems to be trapped in this forest, with human inhabitants on one side and the Anayirangal Dam on the other. Sadly, in a bid to secure more houses for our own kin, we have been snatching away the homes from our fellow beings who cannot vouch for themselves against the injustice committed against them. The hamlet now consists of 41 habitants belonging to 15 tribal families as the rest have moved out of this area in the wake of the recent elephant attacks. The existing families are also ready to move out of this area if adequate compensation is to be provided.
Historically, the people who settled in these forests were traditional forest dwellers, who have now abandoned the region in search of better livelihood opportunities. They co-existed with the wild animals and had a friendly relationship with the forest, but today these areas are being encroached by real estate mafias, tourism agents, soil mafias, resort constructers and many such other groups who care not for the legacy of these lands but just the profit it might fetch them. The area is being used for commercial purposes and these people in the name of tribal rights, bend the narrative and portray Arikomban to be the antagonist of the situation to benefit their own greedy prospects.
HABITAT DEGRADATION:
Official data suggests habitat destruction as the root cause for the prevailing elephant attacks in the region. Private individuals with the motivation to gain profit through exploitation of natural resources have obtained the land rights to this region by fudging documents in several elephant corridors. Expansion of human settlements and agricultural fields has resulted in widespread loss of elephant habitat, degraded forage, reduced landscape connectivity, and a significant decline in elephant population. As their habitats shrink, elephants are progressively forced into closer contact with humans, resulting in more frequent and severe conflict over space and resources with consequences ranging from crop raiding to fatal casualties. According to the report, the 365ha of revenue land where the elephants live is crowded with eucalyptus trees. If the authorities could convert it into grasslands, it would serve as an ideal habitat for the elephants, thereby preventing them from raiding human settlements. However according to the local residents, the forest department has not yet developed a significant resolve to put this plan into action or even methods to ensure adequate food for the wild elephants in these regions.
THE TRANSLOCATION:
Following the problems created by the elephant to the residents, the Kerala High Court according to the suggestions given by the expert committee ordered to translocate the rice-eating tusker to the Periyar tiger reserve. On the day of the translocation all the news channels were telecasting the live videos of how the forest officers traced the animal, tranquilized it, transferred him into the transportation vehicle with the assistance of four Kumki elephants and translocated him to the tiger reserve. This merciless act was being shown as legitimized and celebrated on all the news channels and across Kerala. This can create a wrong perspective in the minds of the common people that such pitiless acts toward animals for the selfish benefits of humans are justified. However the court acknowledged that the issue that is being faced by the residents is not going to be resolved with the relocation of Arikomban. If not Arikomban himself, there could be another komban bringing peril onto the people because his home was snatched away. Translocating Arikomban is just a transient sollution, we are in desperate need for a long-term solution to the issue. As we have more and more settlements coming-up near the forest areas, we will keep having to deal with many such problems. There are also other tuskers that roam this area, such as Mottavalan, Chakkakomban and Padayappa. The settlers claim that they too, are prone to creating a menace in the region. A demand is likely to be raised to capture and relocate all of them too, after Arikomban. It is not a plausible solution to translocate all these tuskers from this region. With the Chinnakkal region being the traditional path of these elephants, there is a huge chance that Arikomban may find his way back to his original home. There have been many incidents where elephants return to their old habitats, even after many long months of relocation. This is evident from the fact that during the lock-down, when all humans were restricted to their homes, we saw wild animals wandering into our highways and reclaiming their traditional paths from the human invaders. Dr S Faizi, an ecologist and United Nations environmental negotiator said, “When we move the rogue tusker from one place to another, we are just shifting the problem to the other place.” Everyone is waiting to see what the wild tusker will do next, ‘Will he choose to stay in his new home or will he find a way back?’.
The truth is, only time will tell.
conclusion
Relocating the wild tusker was only the immediate solution which was used to ensure the safety of the human inhabitants of the region, we must acknowledge that the need for a lasting solution is imperative. We can very well say that this wild tusker has suffered from this relocation because of our own oversight about the elephants in the region before settling humans into this forest. The Forest Department has submitted an affidavit before the court, stating that the relocation of the remaining families would provide a lasting solution. The Forest Department and the government should be more sensitive, honest, and pragmatic. It is not that the elephants are encroaching into human settlements, but it will be more correct to say that the situation is actually the exact opposite. We celebrate ‘The Elephant Whisperers’ by awarding it the much coveted ‘Oscar’, but it is high time that we start showing actual compassion and more determination to protect these sensitive and highly sociable animals, outside of a screen.
