Coimbatore : When Vinayagan, the famous elephant from the Thadagam valley was captured from Thadagam and taken to Mudumalai locked in a truck, the incident sent a wave of change on the attitude of the people in the area. Many including those who wanted him banished from the land started showing a sense of solidarity.
Coimbatore : When Vinayagan, the famous elephant from the Thadagam valley was captured from Thadagam and taken to Mudumalai locked in a truck, the incident sent a wave of change on the attitude of the people in the area. Many including those who wanted him banished from the land started showing a sense of solidarity.
For a few days, many were talking about him and social media was flooded with good bye messages for the translocated king.
Though many did not expect such an emotional farewell to Vinayagan, such has been the trait for every habitual crop raider elephant that has forged a strong bond with people despite being a threat to their livelihood.
People have exhibited the typical Stockholm syndrome behaviour after the elimination of every problem elephant. Emotions run even higher in the case of fatalities. “We thought you would leave this land, not this world,” read an obituary wall poster in Madukkarai.
The posters were stuck after the sad demise of the famous Madukkarai Maharaj, the less than 20-year-old elephant that was captured from Madukkarai and died a few days later in June 2016. Though protests and petitions were on the rise to capture the elephant, the elephant did leave behind a huge crater in the hearts of many.
People even went to the extent of asking the forest department to bury the elephant’s mortal remains in Madukkarai after it suffered a tragic death inside the kraal at the Varagaliyar elephant camp in Topslip, Pollachi.
Once the elephants are dealt with by being eliminated from their problematic home range, people also tend to justify the elephant’s innocence and stand with the pachyderm, which happened in both the cases. While the locals of Madukkarai claimed that the department had captured a calm elephant in place of a killer elephant, which they believed still existed in Madukkarai even after a little while since capture, regional dailies of Kerala started explaining how Vinayagan was not a Kolakolli – reminding their audience about the infamous and reportedly killer elephant Kolakolli and also explaining how Vinayagan has a comparatively calmer temper and how he is no harm to people.
The name Kolakolli would remind the people around the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary in Thiruvananthapuram, about a massive tusker that was captured for coming into conflict with people in 2006 and died a few days after being put inside the Kraal. An end similar to that of Madukkarai Maharaj.
Not just the above mentioned three, almost all the crop raiding problem elephants have a story to tell and Chinnathambi, who is currently roaming in the Thadagam valley is no exception. The very fact that people call the elephants with names is by itself an example of how people relate to the animals.
In some cases, people also tend to get physical with the elephants, wherein locals are known to hand feed the elephants. The people of Kallur, close to the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wayanad, recently had such an experience, as a tusker fondly addressed as Kallur Komban was always found close to human habitations and often handfed by children.
The children of the village fed the animal with fruits for a long time until the elephant was captured and put into captivity in 2016. There was a similar incident of people hand feeding elephants in the Nilgiris district, where a famous tusker named Rivaldo survived on stall feeding for a while after being injured on his trunk.
The stories of almost all the crop raiders have a closer attachment to people, which does not simply limit to the taking of resource of the other person. Though elephants and especially crop raiders are hated by people for eating up their fortune, the standing examples of how they find themselves connected with elephants
It is this connection that could well provide the much required social approach to the ever rising Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC), which is longed by many to become Human-Elephant Coexistence (HEC).
According to experts, elephants that are conditioned to be crop raiders and often venture out of the forests need to be conditioned in the opposite way. One needs to muster up the resources available to teach the elephant and bring it under the de-learning process to make it venture out no more.
People on the other hand should follow the same process of stop creating elephant demons and reduce hostility towards elephants. After the capture of Vinayagan, many concluded that the elimination of elephants cannot provide a solution to HEC, whereas, the problem should be looked at the source.
The source is where the hearts of people and their attitude lie, which are important for the conservation of elephant and the peaceful coexistence of man and animal.
For a few days, many were talking about him and social media was flooded with good bye messages for the translocated king.
Though many did not expect such an emotional farewell to Vinayagan, such has been the trait for every habitual crop raider elephant that has forged a strong bond with people despite being a threat to their livelihood.
People have exhibited the typical Stockholm syndrome behaviour after the elimination of every problem elephant. Emotions run even higher in the case of fatalities. “We thought you would leave this land, not this world,” read an obituary wall poster in Madukkarai.
The posters were stuck after the sad demise of the famous Madukkarai Maharaj, the less than 20-year-old elephant that was captured from Madukkarai and died a few days later in June 2016. Though protests and petitions were on the rise to capture the elephant, the elephant did leave behind a huge crater in the hearts of many.
People even went to the extent of asking the forest department to bury the elephant’s mortal remains in Madukkarai after it suffered a tragic death inside the kraal at the Varagaliyar elephant camp in Topslip, Pollachi.
Once the elephants are dealt with by being eliminated from their problematic home range, people also tend to justify the elephant’s innocence and stand with the pachyderm, which happened in both the cases. While the locals of Madukkarai claimed that the department had captured a calm elephant in place of a killer elephant, which they believed still existed in Madukkarai even after a little while since capture, regional dailies of Kerala started explaining how Vinayagan was not a Kolakolli – reminding their audience about the infamous and reportedly killer elephant Kolakolli and also explaining how Vinayagan has a comparatively calmer temper and how he is no harm to people.
The name Kolakolli would remind the people around the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary in Thiruvananthapuram, about a massive tusker that was captured for coming into conflict with people in 2006 and died a few days after being put inside the Kraal. An end similar to that of Madukkarai Maharaj.
Not just the above mentioned three, almost all the crop raiding problem elephants have a story to tell and Chinnathambi, who is currently roaming in the Thadagam valley is no exception. The very fact that people call the elephants with names is by itself an example of how people relate to the animals.
In some cases, people also tend to get physical with the elephants, wherein locals are known to hand feed the elephants. The people of Kallur, close to the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary in Wayanad, recently had such an experience, as a tusker fondly addressed as Kallur Komban was always found close to human habitations and often handfed by children.
The children of the village fed the animal with fruits for a long time until the elephant was captured and put into captivity in 2016. There was a similar incident of people hand feeding elephants in the Nilgiris district, where a famous tusker named Rivaldo survived on stall feeding for a while after being injured on his trunk.
The stories of almost all the crop raiders have a closer attachment to people, which does not simply limit to the taking of resource of the other person. Though elephants and especially crop raiders are hated by people for eating up their fortune, the standing examples of how they find themselves connected with elephants
It is this connection that could well provide the much required social approach to the ever rising Human-Elephant Conflict (HEC), which is longed by many to become Human-Elephant Coexistence (HEC).
According to experts, elephants that are conditioned to be crop raiders and often venture out of the forests need to be conditioned in the opposite way. One needs to muster up the resources available to teach the elephant and bring it under the de-learning process to make it venture out no more.
People on the other hand should follow the same process of stop creating elephant demons and reduce hostility towards elephants. After the capture of Vinayagan, many concluded that the elimination of elephants cannot provide a solution to HEC, whereas, the problem should be looked at the source.
The source is where the hearts of people and their attitude lie, which are important for the conservation of elephant and the peaceful coexistence of man and animal.