Ajayan
Kochi | Wild tusker Arikomban appears to be moving around blissfully in his new environs in Tamil Nadu’s Kalakkad Mundunthurai Tiger Reserve. But his translocation from Chinnakkanal to Periyar Tiger Reserve and from there to forest in Kanyakumari has created favourable ripples, especially when it comes to forest conservation and its rewilding.
A big step in this was taken last week by US-based conservation organization Voice for Asian Elephants Society (VFAES) in collaboration with its Indian partner, Kolkata-based Nature Mates Nature Club. As much as four acres of a private plantation near the Nilambur South Forest division was bought by VAFES through its Indian arm and handed over to Kerala forest department.
The land near Nedumkayam was officially gifted to Palakkad chief conservator of forest K Vijay Anand on Friday. Founding executive director of VFAES Sangita Iyer told Metro Vaartha that it was the sad plight of Arikomban that worked behind such a move. The four acres covering three plantations were bought by the outfit’s Indian arm. She said there were several plantations in the vicinity and her organization was looking at getting more land so that elephants can graze freely.
Vijay Anand was all praise for the initiative and said it would turn beneficial to the Nilambur forest which is home to nearly 340 elephants.
Sangita said the area had several plantations, some of which were in an abandoned stage. But unfortunately, there were electric fences around and the first thing done after purchase was removal of these fences, making movement of elephants much easier. The land, bereft of plantations, would result in getting rewilded, providing wild animals, especially elephants, their natural habitat.
Canada-based Sangita, director of the much-acclaimed documentary ‘Gods in Shackles’ on elephants, feels that this is only a small gesture. “Four acres may not be much. But the move has been made and its ripples can reach far. “Such a move can help mitigate human-animal conflict. In the case of Arikkomban, it is not the elephant that should have been translocated. Humans have encroached upon the home of wildlife. Translocation Arikomban is not the solution as humans need to be shifted in a proper way,” she asserts.
Wildlife biologist at Research Centre for Environment and Social Sciences Sabu Jahaz who single-handedly undertook the mission of Wildlife Trust of India nearly two decades ago to relocate people from four villages in a tough elephant corridor in Wayanad in Kerala, secure it and transfer it to the forest department, is all praise for the VFAES initiative in Nilambur.
“There is the need to ensure better human-animal interaction. The mission of VFAES is a major one in this direction. Rewilding of the area will happen. In the case of the Tirunelli-Kudrakote initiative, after people from four villages were shifted, the area is now a dense forest with elephants moving freely. This will soon happen in Nilambur too,” he told Metro Vaartha.
