A rogue wild tusker and rice-loving elephant, Arikomban, shifted: Supreme Court guidelines to be followed

On June 05, 2023, Arikomban, a rogue wild tusker, and a rice-loving elephant, was safely tranquilized in Tamil Nadu’s Cumbum East Range by a team of forest veterinary surgeons and forest department officials. On April 17, 2023, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala dismissed the petition filed by the Kerala government challenging the High Court’s order to relocate Arikomban to Parambikulam Tiger Reserve area. The decision to relocate Arikomban was given by the expert committee on the basis of damage caused by the rogue elephant. The bench, then, stated that “If the expert panel has suggested something, the state cannot then go over and above.”

In order to capture Arikomban, Chief Minister MK Stalin established a separate control room at the Cumbum forest range office. Also, around 200 forest personnel from other regions were deployed to ensure the safety of the local residents. Moreover, to obtain real-time information on Arikomban, a ‘special radio collar’ was arranged by the forest department officials that work with the help of satellite signals rather than a lightweight device equipped with a GPS device. This provides early warning signals whenever the elephant is near the human settlement. The forest official mentioned, “The usual radio collar will not function in deep forest areas so the satellite collar provided by the World Wildlife Fund was brought from Assam, courtesy of their forest department.”