The Forest department on Friday informed the Madras High Court that elephant Rivaldo, who was earlier fed by humans at Vazhaithottam area of the buffer zone of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, has now got accustomed to the wild.
After filing a status report before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu, government counsel P. Muthukumar said the elephant was responding well after he was let into the wild recently.
Recording his submission and the contents of the status report, the judges decided to monitor the activities of the pachyderm for three more weeks and find out whether he was able to feed himself well in the forests and mingle with the other animals over there.
The Bench granted liberty to public interest litigant S. Muralidharan to approach the court in the meantime if it was found that the animal faced any difficulties in the forests and had returned to human habitation.
