The Supreme Court declined to address a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) requesting the relocation of the elephant named Arikomban back to its natural habitat in Chinnakkanal. Arikomban had previously been translocated to the Periyar Tiger Reserve with a radio collar on April 29. However, the elephant strayed into the forest region of Tamil Nadu, causing alarm when it appeared in Cumbum town. As a result, the Tamil Nadu authorities had to move it once again, this time to the Kanyakumari region.
In light of these events, environmental activists CR Neelakandan and VK Anandan filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court, urging the court to take necessary action to bring Arikomban back to its natural habitat by relocating human settlements in the Human-Elephant Conflict affected area within a specified timeframe. The petitioners also requested the establishment of a voluntary scheme to relocate vulnerable human settlements in the Chinnakkanal area and the formation of an expert committee to develop standard guidelines addressing such concerns and long-term solutions to be implemented by state and Union governments.
However, the bench, composed of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice Manoj Misra, held that the petitioners had other available legal remedies, leading to the dismissal of the PIL. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud noted at the outset that multiple petitions similar to the present one were already pending before the court.
In April, the Supreme Court had previously declined to intervene in the Kerala High Court’s decision to translocate Arikomban. The petition argued that even after Arikomban’s translocation, incidents of human-elephant conflicts continued to occur in the region, suggesting that Arikomban may not be responsible for these incidents and that moving him would have limited impact on the problem. The petition further claimed that the failure to maintain traditional elephant corridors across states and the decisions regarding elephant translocations violated the fundamental rights of citizens.
Additionally, on June 16, the Madras High Court dismissed a plea filed by Rebecca Joseph, a resident of Kochi, who sought a directive to the Tamil Nadu Government for the translocation of Arikomban back to Kerala. The Forest Bench of the High Court, while considering the plea, observed that Arikomban had sufficient food and water in the forest where it was released by the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. The court also noted that the tusker had adapted to its new environment.
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