A group of officials under the direction of Chief Conservator of Forest, R S Arun, have been looking for the elephant since early Friday morning.
Idukki: After a month-long court fight, the Kerala government on Friday began the mission to sedate and relocate the infamous rice-eating tusker known as "Arikomban," which has been terrorizing locals of Chinnakanal and Santhanpara panchayats for years.
A group of officials under the direction of Chief Conservator of Forest, R S Arun, have been looking for the elephant since early Friday morning. The mission to catch and transfer the elephant has been assigned to more than one hundred authorities from the Forest Department, the KSEB, the Fire and Rescue Department, and the Health Department, among others.
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Once the elephant is located, a team led by Chief Veterinary Officer, Arun Zachariah, is expected to tranquilise the jumbo. The Forest Minister A K Saseendran, who met the media in the morning said forest officials are trying to separate 'Arikomban' from the herd.
However, the forest department has failed to locate the wild tusker even after launching a concerted mission.
The Kerala High Court had on April 19 directed the expert panel appointed by it and the state government to take a final decision by May 3 on the alternative site suggested by the Forest department for translocating the 'Arikomban'.
The direction by the High Court came after the Forest department said it had an alternative location in mind and would place the same before the Committee of Experts (CoE) appointed by it to decide the fate of Arikomban for its consideration.
The court was hearing a PIL by two animal rights groups -- People for Animals (PFA), Trivandrum Chapter and the Walking Eye Foundation for Animal Advocacy -- opposing the government's decision to keep the elephant in captivity and train it to become a kumki elephant.
Kumkis are captive elephants trained for use in trapping and capturing wild elephants.
On April 12, the court had given the state a week's time to come up with an alternative location to translocate the elephant after the government said that people living close to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in Palakkad district were objecting to moving 'Arikomban' there as suggested by the CoE.
The government's statement was made during the hearing of a petition filed by K Babu, a CPI(M) MLA from the Nenmara Assembly constituency, asking the court to reconsider its decision on April 5 to accept the CoE recommendation. The court had declined to review its order but had given the state a week's time to come up with an alternative location.
(With Inputs from PTI)
