Though  Ari Komban, the wild tusker who had been tormenting the residents of Chinnakanal settlement colony in Idukki district was tranquilised and “exiled” to the Periyar Tiger Reserve 106 km away, the woes of the local community continues without abatement.

A new character by name Chakka Komban (Chakka is the Malayalam for jackfruit) has taken the space vacated by the departure of Ari Komban since Sunday night.

He started raiding the  colony accompanied by his women consorts and has demolished three houses though no casualties have been reported, according to A K Sojan, a resident of Chinnakanal.

Speaking to The Pioneer over telephone from Chinnakanal, sojan who has been a resident of the colony for the last four decades said the translocation of Ari Komban from the area would not solve the problems.

“His place would be taken over by another elephant.

The issue could be solved only by addressing the root cause of these attacks. We have to accept the fact that the settlements were built after denuding the reserve forests. The area which measures more than 2000 acres have been planted with eucalypts trees and this has destroyed the greenery as well was water streams,” said Sajan.

Quoting from scientific journals, Sojan said each eucalyptus tree is capable of sucking 40 litres water per day. “There is no need to search for the reasons behind the disappearance of wild streams and small tributaries that fed the Periyar River.

All water bodies in the forest have disappeared altogether,” he said. The eucalyptus plantation was set up to take cre of the needs of a public sector newsprint factory in the region.

John Peruvanthanam said the elephants come out of the forests as there were no bamboos, the staple food of the pachyderms.

 “Some of them are drawn to the smell of rice while some get fascinated with jackfruits and mangoes,” said John. He said that the day human beings stop destroy the forests, the wild animals too would stop their forays into the settlements.

On Tuesday, the two Kumki elephants Konni Surendran and Kunchu which were brought from elephant kraals in Pathanamthitta district returned to their homes. Whether they would come back to Chinnakanal depend on Chakka Komban and his activities.