KOTTAYAM: Two kumki elephants (trained to rein in wild elephants) from Tamil Nadu deployed to protect human settlements Chinnakanal, Munnar, have begun their job. Khaleel and Venkatesh brought to Marayur on Saturday were shifted to Chinnakanal, where two human lives were lost, on Sunday. Sunil George was killed at Singu Kandan on June 17 and Baby at Mullathara last week. On Monday, the kumkis drove off five wild elephants from the Anayirangal, Singukandom and Mullathara. While tusker Khaleel is the leader, Venkatesh assists him. Khaleel had been fighting the menace in Coimbatore and Wayanad before coming here. Both are specially trained on the job.
They belong to the Topslip camp of the Anamalai Tiger Reserve, and they reached here with the permission of Tamil Nadu forest department. “Their operation is continuing,” Dr N.C. Manoharan, deputy director and forest veterinary officer at Coimbatore, told DC. The wild elephants are a serious threat to places like Anayirangal, Singukandom and Mullathara where they come to cardamom, tea and eucalyptus plantations.
Kerala's two skilled elephants based in Wayanad, Chinchu and Pramukha, are now in musth. “The kumkis are coming here for the first time,” chief wildlife warden K.J. Varghese told DC. Two others, Neelakandan, the tusker from Kodanad, and Priyadarshini, the cow elephant from Konny, are expected to join them on Monday.
