Kerala: Forest staff mull rubber bullets to drive out jumbos

KALPETTA: The forest staff of Wayanad district are planning to use rubber bullets to  drive  out the wild elephants from farm lands.  The trial would be on the tusker that has roamed  in and around the jungle hamlet  of Vadakkanad, near Sulthan Bathery,  for the last many months.   The farmers living in the border hamlets had organised an indefinite hunger strike in front of the office of Wayanad wildlife warden at Sulthan Bathery recently. They called off the  agitation after the forest minister promised to take action   to check the animal raids in jungle villages.

Kozhikode DFO K.K. Sunilkumar told DC that he had successfully used rubber bullets during his term in Nilambur to drive elephant herds back to the forest. Since then there were discussions on using the  same method in Wayanad and Kannur districts where the farming community is facing  threats from elephant  herds, he added.     Wayanad wildlife warden N.T. Sajan said that rubber bullets may scare the elephants. “The animal has become  familiar with human settlements and it is  fond of devouring crops,”  Mr Sajan said.

“Whenever ferreted out of the farm zones,  it  returns within no time,”  he added.   “The forest department personnel had scared it  back to the forest several times.  As it  refused to go back, it was  radio-collared. Later using Kumki elephants, it was  pushed back into the interiors of the jungle,”  he said. However,  the farmers are still worried as the presence of elephants prevents them from even the routine agrarian activities,  including selling milk early in the morning.