Wasim, the giant, arrives to strengthen kumki squad

Coimbatore: Kumki elephant Wasim from the Mudumalai Elephant Camp has reached the district to intensify the operation to drive away the two wild elephants that have been raiding human habitation on the Thadagam Valley.
The department was using kumkis Vijay and Bommi from the Mudumalai camp and Cheran and John from the Sadivayal Elephant Camp for the last one month to chase away wild elephants Vinayakan and Chinna Thambi. John was sent back to the camp as he was in musth.

Wasim, who is a huge tusker, will replace John, chief conservator of forest (CCF) Deepak Srivastava said. “Vinayakan, who weighs over 4.5tonnes, will be difficult to control. We will use negative conditioning on him. As soon as he is spotted, we will administer a mild dose of tranquillizer to control aggression. The kumkis will then be able to dominate the scene and drive him back to the forest,” he told TOI. “If our efforts fail, we will be forced to take the last option, which is translocating the tusker.”

The decision was taken based on the elephant expert’s opinion, Srivastava said. Elephant expert Ajay Desai, who had been studying the behaviour of the wild tuskers from Monday, had submitted his recommendations to the department on Thursday.

Meanwhile, district forest officer (DFO) D Venkatesh has submitted the report after analyzing the damaged caused by the tuskers in the last one month after the deployment of the kumkis. “More or less, equal amount of damage – both on property and crops – was caused by the tuskers even after the deployment of the kumkis. While the kumki operation has been carried out till the late evenings, the tuskers have been raiding the human habitations between dawn and dusk,” said Venkatesh.

“Conducting kumki operation during the night hours is extremely difficult. We have been spraying urine and dung of kumkis along the boundaries of the human habitations to give a sense of presence of other elephants to the tuskers. Feeling the presence of the kumkis, the tuskers have been shifting their location and entry points constantly. When the kumkis block a path, the wild elephants enter through another path into the habitation.” he added.