With forest department officials confirming that they are attempting to once again capture a wild elephant accustomed to living in close proximity to humans in the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), activists and conservationists have questioned the rationale behind the move, citing a claim from local experts that the animal poses no significant threat to humans in the region.
On Sunday, forest department officials confirmed that they were in the “advanced stages” of getting the approval of setting up a kraal (elephant shelter used to tame captive elephants) in Vazhaithottam in the buffer zone. “We had earlier tried to lure Rivaldo into the Theppakadu Elephant Camp by providing him with food. However, he managed to escape and the option of capturing him by using kumkis and tranquilisers is very risky,” said a top forest department official. Now, the plan was to tame Rivaldo in Vazhaithottam. “We plan to set up the kraal there itself as that is his main habitat,” said the official.
However, the renewed efforts of the forest department to capture Rivaldo has been met with stiff resistance from conservationists, who assert that the elephant poses no risk to humans.
The forest department wants to capture the elephant, citing the death of another elephant in the region, which died after owners of an illegal resort threw a burning object at it. However, this is no reason to capture a wild elephant that has no antecedents of problematic interactions with humans, said a conservationist from the Nilgiris.
In their 2016 paper, titled “Can a Wild Asian Elephant Change Its Interaction Patterns With Humans,” published in Gajah, authors Jean-Philippe Puyravaud, Shanti Puyravaud and Priya Davidar, who have had interactions with the elephant for the last 15-years, argue that Rivaldo can be weaned from interacting with humans if concerted efforts are taken by the forest department to stop locals from feeding it.
Between 2013 and 2015, the researchers recorded the elephant’s visit to the area. Their findings point to the visits becoming shorter in 2015 due to people ceasing to feed the animal. “The trend we report here needs to be validated with further studies. It nevertheless carries the hope that Asian elephants are adaptable enough to change their behaviour and go back to their natural feeding patterns after having been fed by humans,” the authors note in their paper.
The authors also point out that following an injury to his trunk, Rivaldo was fed with fruits and medication by the forest department. After the feeding stopped and the injury healed, the animal almost stopped venturing into human habitations in search of food. “However, weak implementation of the ban on feeding wildlife, and motives such as profit, superstition and sensationalism has resulted in continuous feeding, encouraging Rivaldo and some of his companions to venture into village interiors,” they note.
