When wild jumbos make life miserable in the 'Kashmir of the South' (Kerala)
When wild jumbos make life miserable in the 'Kashmir of the South' (Kerala)
The Economic Times
October 15, 2021
When the majestic mammoth was suddenly seen emerging from the dark and
turned to his estate grocery shop silently in the wee hours, a frightening
anxiety and helplessness gripped Punyavel, who woke up hearing the dog
barking.
As the female elephant tried to break into the tin-roofed building after
destroying its wooden-panel door, the terrified vendor and his family could
do nothing but make some feeble sounds staying within their house, which
was just a wall away from the shop.
It was for the 14th time that the man with origins in Tamil Nadu and his
family, who makes a living by running a shop at a local estate, had a
narrow escape from the clutches of wild elephants last week in Munnar, one
of the most sought-after hill stations in Kerala widely called the "Kashmir
of the South" by travel buffs for its scenic beauty and cool climate, in
the last 10 years.
Not just Punyavel but Ouseph, a fruit and vegetable vendor whose shop was
attacked seven times by the pachyderm, and Palraja, who fell into death
trap due to the frequent jumbo raids at his outlet, are among the hundreds
of ordinary people who bore the brunt of the jumbo menace in this hill
station.
For them, Munnar is not just about vast tea plantations, pristine valleys,
scenic mountains and expansive grasslands but also about endless elephant
fury, fear for life and debt traps.
Punyavel said he initially had a sigh of relief seeing the female jumbo
vanish into the dark after her hours-long shop raid but plunged into gloom
suddenly after realising that he had to pick up pieces to rebuild the
destroyed shop and bring back life in order again.
"The female jumbo was part of a herd of wild elephants straying into the
estate last week. Throughout the time the pachyderm was destroying my shop,
a tusker and two calves could be seen waiting for her outside the
building," he told PTI.
His ancestors had settled in this Kerala tourist town years ago and the
family has been running a grocery shop at Chokanad Estate, located about
1.5 kms away from Munnar town, for the last several decades.
The hapless man said he does not know the reason why the animal was
particularly attacking his shop.
From the CCTV visuals of the shop, it was clear how the angry jumbo was
taking each cardboard box from the shop with his tusk and crushing it after
throwing it on the cement floor.
"I have no issue if it takes something from the shop and eats it. It may be
due to its hunger pangs. But, here, the jumbos are destroying everything in
my shop. As our house is also just near the shop, we are living with
extreme fear and anxiety every day," he said.
The 50-year old man and his two sons had a close shave from the wild jumbos
some months back when they tried to chase them away making noise. The
pachyderm had also broken the compound wall of the house another day.
Each time the jumbos attacked his shop, Punyavel would fall into a debt
trap again.
The man said he had not got any compensation from the Forest Department so
far despite repeated filing of requests and complaints.
When the 62-year old K Palraja had rebuilt his fruit shop near Grahamsland
Estate, over two km away from the town, again after the jumbos destroyed it
last year, the elephant came twice in a gap of two weeks and gulped down
the fruits again.
Shibu, a local journalist residing in Munnar, said the COVID pandemic also
seemed to have a role in the increasing instances of wild elephants
straying into human settlements in the tourist town in recent times.
"After the imposition of lockdown curbs, the human intervention was very
less in the otherwise busy areas. The decreased presence of men and unusual
silence may also be a reason that persuades jumbos to stray into settlement
areas," he told PTI.
Leading wildlife expert Dr P S Easa also agreed to the "lockdown factor" to
some extent for the recent spurt in the straying of wild jumbos.
He, however, said the increased animal intrusion in places like Munnar was
not the fault of wild creatures but that of humans who have claimed its
traditional territory and constructed houses and resorts there.
A host of reasons including shrinking habitat of elephants, the tendency to
travel through their traditional route, the secondary growth of flora in
fringe areas due to less human intervention during the lockdown period and
so on might be the reasons for the increased jumbo presence, he said.
"Jumbos generally like the areas having secondary growth, where plants and
shrubs grow like forests. Waste management is also an issue as garbage
always attracts them," Easa told PTI.
Besides fruits, articles like salt, stored in grocery shops, also an
attraction for jumbos, which can be a reason for its constant raids at
Punyavel's shop, the expert added.
Meanwhile, despite all these spine-chilling incidents, the people of the
high range were keen to give unique names to these frequently straying
pachyderms.
While a constant crop-raiding jumbo was named "Padayappa", after Tamil
superstar Rajnikanth's macho character in a 1999 year film, another one,
expert in breaking metal fences around farms, was christened as "4G.''
A jumbo roaming around with a piece of hose stuck to its tusk was known as
"Hosekomban" and another one, known for his love for 'ari' (rice), was
called "Arikomban". "Chillikomaban", a tusker with twig shaped tusk, the
highly dangerous "Murivalan " and well-behaved "Sugunan" were some of the
wild jumbos having unique names in this high range district.
Located 1,600 metres above sea level in the biodiversity hot spot of the
Western Ghats, Munnar was once the summer resort of the erstwhile British
government in South India.