The story is both bizarre and tragic. In India, a wild elephant has gained national fame for carrying out numerous raids on shops selling rice or seeds in the southern state of Kerala. His all-consuming passion for this food even earned him the nickname Arikomban (“the rice-loving elephant”). But his expeditions were sometimes deadly: according to local media, at least six trampled people lost their lives there.
So much so that for several years, guards have repeatedly tried to capture him. Already in 2017, Arikomban had received tranquilizers but he had managed to escape. Last month, a dummy ration of rice and seeds was installed to attract him but a court halted the scheme, according to The Indian Express.
The pachyderm was finally caught on Saturday, April 30, by a team of 150 rangers. The elephant fiercely defended himself: he resisted even after five doses of tranquilizer. With his legs shackled and his eyes obscured by fabric, he was eventually pushed onto a truck with the help of four “kumki” elephants – elephants trained to capture their fellows. There, the elephant, estimated to be around 30 years old, was fitted with a GPS collar and taken to a wildlife sanctuary.
According to the government, India is home to more than 60% of wild Asian elephants. The last elephant census conducted in 2017 counted 29,964 in the country.
Conflicts between animals such as elephants or tigers and humans have increased in recent years in parts of India. Conservationists see it as a consequence of the rapid expansion of human settlements around forests and major wildlife routes.
Last year, Indian authorities shot down a tiger nicknamed “the Champaran man-eater” that had killed at least nine people in the east of the country.
