TN: Wild tusker attacks forest officials in Gudalur, CCTV footage goes viral

Gudalur (Tamil Nadu), October 9 (ANI): A wild elephant fond of eating rice came inside the perimeter wall of the house near Gudalur and aggressively tried to attack the forest officials who were on duty.

A CCTV footage released shows the presence of wild elephants roaming in residential areas in the Gudalur and Bandalur areas of Nilgiri district which has caused great fear among the locals.

The Forest Department received information that a single elephant was roaming in the village area in the Thondialam area, after which the department was engaged in security work to drive away the elephant.

At that time, the elephant was roaming aggressively in the area, so the forest department was monitoring the elephant in a house from there. Suddenly, the elephant entered the house beyond the surrounding wall and aggressively tried to attack the occupants of the house and the forest department officials. Realizing this, the forest officials ran inside the house and escaped the attack.

Despite this, the elephant stopped in the same area again, so the forest staff raised a noise and chased the elephant away from there. This footage was recorded on the CCTV camera installed there and is currently going viral.

With a rapidly increasing human population and high biodiversity, interactions between people and wild animals are becoming more and more prevalent.

The factors leading to human-wildlife conflict are the result of humans coming in proximity to natural habitats of wildlife. Habitat disturbance is the destruction of the home of wild animals.

Humans kill or chase wild animals by digging, cutting, sealing by stones and smoking in their natural habitat.

Other factors include large-scale habitat destruction through deforestation overgrazing by livestock and expansion of human settlements and agriculture.

Earlier, Palraj, a resident of the Kamban town of Tamil Nadu was attacked by an Arikomban when he was sitting on his bike. His head and stomach got injured severely and he later succumbed to injuries.

In another incident in Kerala’s Idukki, a supervisor of the Penniyar estate canteen was attacked by an Arikomban when he was sleeping inside. He although managed to escape the wild tusker.

In April 2023, Various farmers’ organisations from the Idukki district held a march to the Kerala High Court on Wednesday seeking justice on the issue of tusker ‘Arikomban’, the wild elephant, which roams around the Chinnakkanal and nearby areas in Idukki and has destroyed several human settlements.

On March 30, as many as 10 panchayats in Kerala’s Idukki district observed a 12-hour hartal (strike) from 6 am to 6 pm demanding to capture the wild tusker.

Arikomban is an elephant fond of eating rice. Ari in Malayalam means rice.