Wayanad sanctuary: Resort owner held for killing jumbo

Kalpetta: The forest department has arrested a resort owner, Kulathinkal Shaji, 48,  of Pulppalli in connection with the killing of a female elephant at 4th Mile, near Sulthan Bathery on May 29. He is the third accused in the case.    The elephant was shot a few metres from the Sulthan Bathery-Pulppalli highway near the office of the Wayanad wildlife warden. A six-member gang came in a car and shot at the elephant which was part of a herd. The forest team has  already taken into custody the gun used by the gangsters, and was sent for ballistic tests.

Kulathinkal Shaji

Wayanad Wildlife Warden P. Dhanesh Kumar told DC that the accused had been attacking elephants whenever he was drunk. He owns many vehicles and used to crisscross through the jungle routes. He had owned three resorts in the past which he sold out,”  he said.  The arrest of Chundatt Baby and Puthankudiyil Shaji, both accused in the killing, shed light on the links of Kulathinkal Shaji in the operation,” he added.  

Kulathinkal Shaji was produced before  the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Sulthan Bathery and remanded. Meanwhile, Bindu, wife of Shaji, told reporters  that Shaji was with her at a hospital in Kozhikode in connection with the surgery of their daughter on the day the elephant was killed.  “It is a conspiracy by his foes to trap him,” she added.

Officials turned a deaf ear to greens’ whistleblowing

The recent arrest of six people including a resort owner for poaching an elephant, and the seizure of vehicles, country guns and bullets have given credence to the allegation environmentalists have been raising for quite some time that mafia elements run resorts in Wayanad and that they attract hunting as a bait to attract youngsters.

The forest department officials who on Tuesday arrested Kulathinkal Shaji, owner of a resort in Wayanad, said more resorts located either on the fringes of the jungle or in private lands inside the jungle are under suspicion. It’s a payback time also for the officials who have been under fire for checking movements of people connected with the resorts in jungle routes.

Wayanad Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithy secretary Thomas Ambalavayal told DC that there were more than a dozen incidents of attacks and showering abuses on the forest staff in Wayanad in the last one month after the forest department intensified the search for the culprits who killed the wild elephant. “A CPM leader of the locality has been leading the gangsters who attacked forest staff,” he said. “Shaji is just a tip of the iceberg. It is a nexus of high-profile government officials, wildlife criminals and local political leaders.”

The tourism industry, however, supported the forest department’s move, saying the resort owner should be punished if he committed a crime. “But we do not know about the real facts,” said K.R. Vancheeswaran of Wayanad Tourism Organisation.