COIMBATORE: Chinna Thambi, once a notorious crop-raiding elephant in the Coimbatore region, is now a kumki who is on his first major assignment to chase away wild elephants from human habitats in the Kannivadi forest range in the Dindigul forest division.
A Kasilingam, range officer, Ulandy forest range in the Anaimalai Tiger Reserve, said, “Chinna Thambi became a kumki after intensive training at the Varakaliyar elephant camp. In his new mission, 26-year-old tusker will help 57-year-old kumki elephant, Kaleem, in chasing away wild elephants. Chinna Thambi left for Kannivadi from the Kozhikamuthi elephant camp in the ATR, along with mahouts Chelladurai and Kaliappan, on Saturday.”
The kumkis were pressed into service as a herd of female elephants and a tusker entered villages along the Kannivadi forest range several times last month. The wild elephants damaged a few houses, ate rice and rice flour and damaged standing crops on farmlands. On April 13, an anti-poaching watcher was trampled to death by a wild elephant.
Subsequently, officials from the Dindigul forest division asked ATR officials to send two kumki elephants to prevent man-animal conflicts. “Based on the request, Kaleem was sent to Kannivadi on Friday evening. Meanwhile, Chinna Thambi underwent medical check-ups, and forest veterinary officer A Sukumar issued a fitness certificate for the tusker to travel to Kannivadi on Saturday, after which he left,” a forest officer said.
Chinna Thambi, who frequently raided crops, was captured by the forest department from Thadagam valley on January 25, 2019. He was fitted with a radio collar and let into a forest near Topslip. He roamed around the surrounding areas for four days and later entered the Pollachi forest range. On January 31, he entered a coconut farm there and damaged four coconut trees. He later entered several villages and he was finally captured again by the forest department at Sarkar Kannadipudur village near Madathukulam in Tirupur district in the mid-February that year. He was later translocated to the Varakaliyar elephant camp, where he spent 132 days inside a kraal.
“Kaleem will retire in three years. After that Chinna Thambi will play a vital role in preventing man-animal conflicts in the region,” said M G Ganesan, deputy field director of the ATR.
