Mercifully, the 100-odd families of Chinnakanal want Ari Komban back. They fear that driving a poor animal out of his home and hearth will bring a curse on their heads and take their peace and prosperity away.
A 32-year-old male elephant, Ari Komban, has been in the news for various reasons. First, it was due to his raids of ration shops in the hamlets close to the forest in Chinnakanal in the Idukki district of Kerala in search of rice, resulting in him being nicknamed Ari Komban (ari means rice and Komban means bull elephant in Malayalam) by the residents of the area. Later it was due to the fact that he began raiding homes after the ration shops were moved to a distant location so that the tusker could not get to them. Ari Komban is also accused of having killed seven people during his forays into the areas adjoining the forests in search of his favourite food. However, there is no proof to substantiate these claims that were mainly made by a local politician in order to buttress his case against the voiceless animal that has no means to defend itself.
This saga of man-elephant conflict had been going on for over five years and ultimately after the villagers, egged on by the land mafia and encouraged by the local politicians, raised a major hue and cry against the marauding elephant, Ari Komban was shifted to the forests of Tamil Nadu. But over there, too, Ari Komban found his way to human habitats, either in a bid to return to his beloved forest home in Chinnakanal or in search of his comfort food, rice. In the end, after that he was tranquilised and captured and left deep into the Upper Kodayar area of Muthukuzhi forest near the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border with a satellite radio collar around his neck to begin a “new life.”
However, this new life is easier said than done! If he stays there in the Tamil Nadu forests, he will have to fight for territory with younger male elephants. As it is, Ari Komban is blind in one eye, has a severe cut on his trunk, and has sustained injuries during multiple attempts to translocate him.
Even though, the government officials at the moment are gung ho about the fact that Ari Komban is settling down in his new habitat and PR photos are being released to the Press showing how “happy” he is in his new “tranquil” haven I don’t think that we have heard the last of Ari Komban.
