Chinna Thambi, the elephant belonging to Thadagam Valley reserve forests in Coimbatore district, earned a rare distinction of being the one and only wild elephant in South India to be caught twice and that too in quick succession. He also became the first wild life citizen to taste cooked food!
The darling of the villagers adjoining Thadagan Valley reserve forests, Chinna Thambi, who was caught from the village and relocated to Anamalai Tiger Reserve on January 26 following complaint from a section of the residents that the pachyderm along with his comrades were stealing their agricultural crops like sugar cane, bananas and other vegetables.
Chinna Thambi, who was re-located to ATR in a night long operation felt unease in the new surroundings and his odyssey in search of his original home on the next day itself. He has been in the limelight since then. The Forest Officials sent kumkis (elephants specially trained in handling wild and rogue elephants) to take control of Chinna Thambi. The department also decided to train Chinna Thambi as a kumki because of his “civilised behaviour”.
But hell broke loose in Thadagam Valley as the residents opposed the move to train their “Chinna” as kumki. Petitions were filed in the Madras High Court challenging the move by the Forest Department. The friends of the tusker formed a Chinna Thambi Fans Association to drive home the adoration enjoyed by the guest from the “wild west”.
Meanwhile the caravan consisting of Chinna Thambi and forest officials accompanying him reached Udumalpet . The hero enjoyed his padayatra as there was no shortage of food and drink. The Madras High Court ordered that Chinna Thambi be caught but the move to train him as kumki was blocked by the court.
Late Friday, the team of forest officials with the help of a veterinary surgeon, a kumki and foresters managed to lure Chinna Thambi out of a dense sugar came field with jackfruits , a weakness of the wild tusker. The team tranquilised him and transported Chinna Thambi to a kraal (an enclosure made with wood for caging elephants).
V Ganeshan, Field Director, ATR, told the media on Sunday that the elephant is hale and hearty in spite of the fact that normally they get irritated and disturbed while caged. “He is having food and lot of water and is cordial to the forest staff,” said Ganeshan.
The forest official disclosed that Chinna Thambi was being fed cooked food comprising of millet and fodder. “We are for releasing him back to the ATR after training him for sometime. Out idea is to set him free in the reserve forests and make him stay there throughout life,” said a senior forest official.
For the time being, Nalla Thambi is going off the media glare and would be back if he comes out of the ATR again in search of his original abode.