Kerala Farmer Unions Stage Protest Seeking Court Order To Capture Elephant Arikomban

Earlier, Kerala High Court warned the state of strict action if they found that the area in Idukki district where the elephants were roaming was used to resettle the tribals.

Farmers organisations on Wednesday staged a protest march urging Kerala High Court to issue orders to immediately capture jumbo Arikomban roaming around Chinnakkanal in Idukki district.

According to ANI, "#WATCH | Kochi: Various Farmers' organisations from Idukki march to Kerala HC seeking justice in issue of 'Arikomban', the wild elephant, which roams around Chinnakkanal nearby areas in Idukki & causes damages. Farmers are demanding immediate capture of the elephant."

Last week, agitated people from 10 villages blocked traffic on Kochi-Dhanushkodi highway in hilly district of Idukki on Thursday. The protesters were unhappy with Kerala High Court's decision warning the state of strict action if they found that the area in Idukki district where the elephants were roaming was used to resettle the tribals.

The court, as per IANS, said, "If it was an elephant habitat, you had no business resettling people there and putting them in danger. The court said that resettling people in an elephant habitat was the root of the entire problem."

"We will examine it. If it was an elephant habitat, then your policymakers went way off board. If people were resettled there despite being aware of this fact, we will come down heavily on those responsible," it said.

"Errors in history can be corrected later. We need to find whether the mistake happened and if yes, correct it," the bench said, and declined to issue any direction in the interim for capture and captivity of the wild tuskers, including 'Arikomban'.

The feature of Arikomban (translated in Malayalam as Aari-rice and Komban-tusker) is it attacks ration shops and houses for rice.

(With IANS inputs)