# Ajayan

Kochi | Putting to rest all rumours of a weak and injured wild tusker Arikomban, the Tamil Nadu Forest department has put out a picture of the elephant moving through the wild. As part of this, the department has tweeted that the elephant “has been foraging well & drinking copious amounts of water from the reservoirs of Kuttiyar dam and comfortable in its new home”.

The tusker was tranquilized, radio-collared and translocated from Chinnakkanal in Idukki district to Periyar Tiger Reserve on April 29. However, a few days later it moved to a human settlement in Cumbum, creating a scare among people. Tamil Nadu forest department stepped in and translocated it to Kalakkad Mundunthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR), over 200 km from where it was tranquilized.

Incidentally, the operation was a day after the full moon on June 4 when the tusker was clearly visible in the open. It was tranquilized, transported and left into an area outside Mundunthurai Tiger Reserve after 24 hours.

The wound on its trunk and fatigue had created a furore among a section of the people. The tusker staying put near the reservoir raised doubts about its health and also its wound. Generally, elephants with wounds stay near water sources and step into them as part of healing the wound letting fish clean it. Moreover, an elephant in fatigue will feel lighter in water and so will not feel a big strain.

However, a top official of the Tamil Nadu forest shot down the rumours and told Metro Vaartha that protocol was maintained. The tusker’s wound was treated, its health condition examined and then left into the wild. Medicines applied to heal wounds can remain effective for up to 24 days, say experts.

There are six teams of veterinarians and forest staff, including senior officers, from the ranges of Kalakad, Kanyakumari and Ambasaudram keeping a close track of the tusker and its movements round-the-clock.

A researcher well-acquainted with the area said availability of fresh grass, sufficient reeds and plenty of water should make it ideal for the tusker to move around. It has already covered a long distance in this forest area and elephants generally walk a lot.

An elephant expert associated with forests was highly critical of views that the elephant would have the urge to get back to its moorings and would create a scare in the area it was now in. “State borders are not for animals. They are man-made and it is sheer human fallacy to say that elephants, like humans, would have the desire to go back home and meet their parents, brothers, cousins and uncles and aunts,” he added.

Elephants follow a matriarchal family system where the oldest cow elephant heads the family. Tuskers are generally loners and go around on their own and that explains why Arikomban is not part of the herd, say experts.