On Tuesday morning, a man who had been injured in an accident after spotting the rogue tusker Arikomban died away while being treated at the Theni Government Medical College. Malayalam for ‘arikomban’ is ‘rice-eater.’
Balraj, a 65-year-old man from Cumbum, Tamil Nadu, was identified as the deceased. Balraj got a severe head injury after falling off his two-wheeler on Saturday due to fear following his encounter with Arikomban. After a post-mortem examination, his body will be given to his family.
Arikomban is currently three km away from a forest. The Shanmukha River Dam’s reservoir is close to where the elephant was found thanks to its GPS tracker.
Officials had made a second attempt to seize Arikomban earlier on Monday. Three kumki elephants were brought along by police and forest department personnel from Tamil Nadu for their assignment.
Elephants from the Kumki tribe are bred for use in operations to capture wild elephants.
The 150-person crew is now stationed in Surulipatti the village in Tamil Nadu’s Theni district and is tasked with catching Arikomban if it penetrates a residential area.
The renegade tusker, which was relocated from Kerala’s Chinnakanal in the Idukki district to the Periyar Tiger Reserve last month, wandered into Cumbum in the Theni district on Saturday and attacked a person and damaged property.
The elephant initially entered a populated area on Saturday in Kerala’s Kumily. Within 100 metres of residential areas in Kumily’s Rosapookandam district, the elephant wandered. With loud noises and gunfire into the skies, forest rangers drove the elephant back into the forest.
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