The concept is borrowed from countries like South Africa and Australia where the animals are shifted from areas that have a healthy wildlife population to those that has recently lost its animals or the protected land can support more animals.

While the practice is successful in those countries, in Chennai, however, translocation has several disadvantages with animals being pushed into regions which are already overpopulated and are facing habitat destruction.

While the state and the Centre had evolved policies to fight the extinction of wildlife, the local extinction (the process of extinction in a smaller area) of both plants and small mammals have been going unchecked, admit wildlife experts.

“The last massive misleading example from Tamil Nadu was operation Malai in 2013 where a herd of six elephants that had destroyed crops near Thiruvannamalai forests were trapped from the Eastern Ghats and then moved to Nilgiris in the Western Ghats,” said A Kumaraguru, a conservation scientist from Biodiversity Conservation Foundation.

 

“This herd was the last group to freely roam the forests of erstwhile North Arcot district comprising Javadhu hills (Vellore-Thiruvannamalai), Amethi forests (Vellore), Polur (Thiruvannamalai) and Uthangarai forests now there is no gene pool of elephants in this part of Tamil Nadu. In other words, the elephants were robbed of their ancestral habitat due to public pressure.

 

“Madukarai Maharaj in 2016, was also another example, where the operation was a success, but the patient died. The foresters succeeded in capturing a ‘rogue’ elephant playing to the gallery, but a magnificent alpha male tusker was found dead within days of being captured, exposing the poor non-scientific approach in handling the large pachyderm,” Kumaraguru added. 

 

“Chennai was once blessed with endangered plants and animals, but after the 1980s, the biodiversity began to deteriorate. Before Independence, British botanists collected samples of rare birds and plants from Chennai and shared it with noted naturalist Charles Darwin,” said S Suburayulu, former principal chief conservator of forests, who has authored a book on HC Cleghorn, father of scientific forestry in India.

The veteran officer who designed the Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur recalled Vandalur, Anna University – Guindy and Chengalpet hillocks — as a breeding ground for blackbuck, spotted deer, leopard, snakes and birds, but some of them had been wiped out of the area owing to construction activities. Blackbuck is an endangered species once found freely roaming in Chennai and there were times when Vandalur zoo was closed due to frequent visits by a wild leopard from Vandalur forest, recalled Suburayulu.

Here, KVRK Thirunaran, founder of The Nature Trust, said, “Till the 90s, construction was not allowed near the forest areas and the buffer zone was well marked. But now, developmental projects are being carried out right up to the forest boundary and this causes leopards to stray.”

He further said, “Studies have shown that shifting leopards and tigers from one area to another area has only aggravated conflicts.” There needs to be a lot of awareness and understanding of the animal kingdom so that Chennai’s remaining collection of flora and fauna can be conserved.

According to a survey by Anna University staff and students this year, the campus is home to 120 common plants and animals such as mongoose, jackal and porcupine are often sighted in the premises. Also, a study to ascertain the impact of cyclone Vardah early this year brought to light that that critically endangered Black Buck -- which used to thrive in the varsity -- is no longer found in the campus.

A leopard has been frequentingAnjur forest, located about 60 kilometres away from Chennai, and camera traps have confirmed frequent movement of the fully grown male cat. According to experts, this leopard often attacks livestock because of inadequate prey base and habitat destruction.

Spotted deer

In 2011, 40 spotted deer were caught from the premises of Poultry Research Station in Nandanamand released inGuindy National Park. The entire population was moved out of their natural habitat to pave the way for Nandanam metro rail station. It took forty days for the authorities to complete the rescue operation.

In 2015, a jackal strayed into a flat in Besant Nagar from the jungles of Theosophical Society nearby. Areas like Thiruvanmiyur, Saidapet and Adyar have sustainedpopulations of small mammals in the past.

Forest officials in Tamil Nadu tried to translocate elephants through operation Malai in 2013 and Madukarai Maharaj in 2016. In the first operation, the herd was taken out of Eastern ghats and in the second operation an adult male elephant named Maharaj, died because of multiple fractures on the forehead proving that the state needs better scientific approach to conserve and fight local extinction