Kerala’s bid to capture wild jumbo ‘Arikomban’

Kerala’s bid to capture wild jumbo ‘Arikomban’

Subject : International relations

Section: Species in news

Context: People of Santhanpara and Chinnakanal panchayats in Idukki have been demanding the capture of Arikompan, which has a history of trampling ten people to death and destroying around 60 houses and shops.

More on the News:

• Kerala Forest Department has made sweeping arrangements to capture a wild elephant terrorising the high ranges of the Idukki district by killing people and raiding shops for grains for at least the last five years.
• The elephant, known as Arikomban (rice tusker), a name conferred on the rogue elephant by local people due to its habit of raiding shops for rice) would be tamed in the operation set to begin on March 25 and converted into a kumki (captive tusker used for operations against rogue elephants)
• The department has already begun mobilising its four kumki elephants from Wayanad to Idukki to herd the tranquilised rogue pachyderm to truck and later into a cage already constructed at the elephant training centre.
• Earlier this year, forest officials captured a rogue elephant at the centre of man-animal conflict at Dhoni in Palakkad. The rogue tusker, code-named Palakkad Tusker-7 (P-7), was shot with tranquiliser darts.

Reasons for the conflict:

• Growing human/animal populations overlap with established wildlife/human territory, creating a reduction of resources.
• Fragmentation of habitats and corridors due to legal and illegal changes in land use – clearances for mining or encroachment for agriculture.
• Agricultural Expansion and Changing cropping patterns that attract wild animals to farmlands.
• Habitat degradation due to the growth of invasive alien species, etc.
• Infrastructure development, Climate Change, etc.

Human-Wildlife conflict management:

• Understanding the conflict: Research all aspects of the conflict profile to understand the context for conflict in any given situation (hotspot mapping, community attitudes, spatial and temporal characteristics, etc.)
• Mitigation: Reducing the impacts of HWC after it occurs (compensation, insurance, alternative livelihoods, etc.)
• Response: Addressing an on-going HWC incident (response teams, reporting mechanisms, standard operating procedures,)
• Prevention: Stopping or preventing HWC before it occurs (fences, early detection tools, safe working environments,)
• Policy: Enabling HWC management through protocols, principles, provisions, and measures stipulated in the legislation and undertaken by authorities (international and national law, national and local HWC management plans, spatial plans, etc.)
• Monitoring: Measuring the performance and effectiveness of HWC management interventions over time (data collection, information sharing, adaptive management, etc.)