After days of suffering, Kochayyappan can now heave a sigh a relief, thanks to the intervention of Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA).
The captive elephant had been finding it difficult to take food with his overgrown tusks that were badly in need of trimming. Though his owners had the permission for trimming from the Forest Department, they could not execute the order owing to the lockdown. “His plight was noted by Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan, Chief Justice, Calcutta High Court, who watched it on a news channel and he immediately contacted KELSA chairman C.T. Ravikumar. As per his directions, we arranged an expert from Kochi and took him to Kollam. With the help of District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), we also found a veterinary doctor to supervise the process,” said KELSA secretary K.T. Nizar Ahamad. The team arrived in Kollam on Sunday and they completed the trimming process by the evening.
For three months
According to his mahouts, the long tusks have been causing great inconvenience to the tusker, often affecting his comfort and food intake. “They were locked together and the elephant has been suffering for three months as it was not able to move its trunk properly. During the lockdown, it was difficult to coordinate the process and we had to take Vinayan, an expert from Kochi, as no one was locally available. The process requires a lot of expertise since there is chance for infection,” he added.
