Crop-raiding tusker Chinna Thambi to live in wild as state drops domestication plans
Suresh Kumar | TNN | Updated: Feb 5, 2019, 08:37 IST
Chinna Thambi CHENNAI: Crop-raiding tusker Chinna Thambi, whose fan following is growing everyday, will remain in the wild as the state government has dropped plans to domesticate him as a kumki (a camp elephant used to tame and train other elephants).
Responding to an animal welfare activist’s PIL in the Madras high court opposing the proposal to make Chinna Thambi a kumki, advocategeneral Vijay Narayan said the government wanted the elephant to live in its natural habitat. But, apprehensions of the public should also be taken note of, he said referring to Chinna Thambi’s raids on farms near the forests.
A bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad took up the PIL filed by activist Arun Prasanna just hours before operations to capture the tusker were scheduled.
The advocate-general told the judges that elephant expert Ajay Desai and other forest officials had gone to push Chinna Thambi back into the forest from the Amaravathi area.
The judges made it clear that Chinna Thambi should not be put to any physical discomfort when being chased into the wild. They then directed the forest department to file a counter affidavit by February 11.
Elephant expert Ajay Desai and other forest officials had gone to push Chinna Thambi back into the forest, the court was told
‘To make him kumki will be last resort’
Earlier, the principal chief conservator of forests told the bench that all elephants could not be used as kumki. “We have planned first to send the elephant into Mudumalai forest area and there is no idea to make him a kumki. Such a decision will be the last resort,” he said.
After Chinna Thambi turned a cropraider, the forest department had relocated him in a forest 90km from his home range. But, within a couple of days he had walked more than 50km out of the forest and back into human settlements and resumed crop-raiding. His waltz through a tribal hamlet was captured on video and earned him a lot of fans who opened a Facebook page dedicated to him.
Responding to an animal welfare activist’s PIL in the Madras high court opposing the proposal to make Chinna Thambi a kumki, advocategeneral Vijay Narayan said the government wanted the elephant to live in its natural habitat. But, apprehensions of the public should also be taken note of, he said referring to Chinna Thambi’s raids on farms near the forests.
A bench of Justice S Manikumar and Justice Subramonium Prasad took up the PIL filed by activist Arun Prasanna just hours before operations to capture the tusker were scheduled.
The advocate-general told the judges that elephant expert Ajay Desai and other forest officials had gone to push Chinna Thambi back into the forest from the Amaravathi area.
The judges made it clear that Chinna Thambi should not be put to any physical discomfort when being chased into the wild. They then directed the forest department to file a counter affidavit by February 11.
Elephant expert Ajay Desai and other forest officials had gone to push Chinna Thambi back into the forest, the court was told
‘To make him kumki will be last resort’
Earlier, the principal chief conservator of forests told the bench that all elephants could not be used as kumki. “We have planned first to send the elephant into Mudumalai forest area and there is no idea to make him a kumki. Such a decision will be the last resort,” he said.
After Chinna Thambi turned a cropraider, the forest department had relocated him in a forest 90km from his home range. But, within a couple of days he had walked more than 50km out of the forest and back into human settlements and resumed crop-raiding. His waltz through a tribal hamlet was captured on video and earned him a lot of fans who opened a Facebook page dedicated to him.
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