A war of words has broken out between the settlers of Chinnakanal settlement in Idukki, residents of Muthalamada and Parambikulam in Palakkad and the elephant lovers of Kodanadu in Ernakulam over Ari Komban, the wild tusker who is giving sleepless nights to persons staying in the suburbs of Western Ghats.
On Good Friday, an all party meeting convened under the auspices of Muthalamada Panchayath decided to observe a dawn to dusk hartal on Tuesday against the move by the Forest Department officials to tranquilize Ari Komban and trans locate him to their region. P Mohanan, the Nenmara MLA of the CPI-M and his comrades have already written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan against the move to transport the tusker to Parambikulam. “Is it that the bureaucrats want the people of Parambikulam to be at the mercy of this rogue elephant. There is no question of us allowing him anywhere near our locality,” said P Mohanan. The all party meeting which met for more than three hours and concluded with scrumptious meals charted out a strategy to counter the Forest officials’ move. “We formed a joint action council and will file a petition in Kerala High Court against dumping this elephant on us,” said Mohanan.
But John Peruvanthanam, noted wild life activist said that commotion over relocating the elephant is unwanted and irrelevant issue. “There is no need to translocate it to Parambikulam. Even of it is shifted to Parambikulam, chances are that it would return to Chinnakanal. It is the encroachers masquerading as settlers who are making a hue and try to get the tusker shifted from here,” said John.
The Muthalamada residents have already drafted a petition addressed to the Kerala High Court seeking its urgent intervention to dissuade the Forest offcials from shifting the tusker to their locality. John is of the view that the CPI-M, fighting with its back to the wall because of charges of corruption and nepotism needs an issue to divert the attention of the people.
At the time of going to Press, an interesting development has taken place in Kodanadu, a rural township on the banks of River Periyar. Hundreds of elephant lovers in the town that boasts of an elephant kraal staged a demonstration in support of Ari Komban.
“Since we do have a kraal here, let them shift the elephant to Kodanad where we can train Ari Komban as a kumki,” said Sasi Kumar, a former technician with an engineering giant. Kumkis are trained elephants who could be deployed to control rogue elephants who do not care a damn for law of the land. With the entry of Kodanadu residents, a three-way fight is on over Ari Komban.
According to John Peruvanathanam, there is every possibility of the pachyderm emerging as an issue in the 2024 Lok Sabha election from the region.