KOCHI : In gross violation of the Wildlife Protection Act, crackers were burst during the annual festival of Anakulam St Joseph’s Church in Mankulam panchayat on Saturday.
Anakulam is a popular tourist spot in Idukki district where people gather to witness elephant herds that arrive at the waterhole everyday. The water in the stream is rich in mineral content which attracts elephants in large numbers.
According to animal rights activist M N Jayachandran, a herd of around 20 wild elephants including calves were drinking water at Anakulam, at 4 pm on Saturday, when the procession organised as part of the annual festival reached the spot. “As the organisers burst crackers, the elephants were terrified and ran helter-skelter. The waterhole is located just 100m away from the road and tourists had gathered to watch the elephants. The spot is located inside the reserve forest and there is no fencing to stop the elephants from entering human habitations. Had the panicked elephants run towards the road it would have ended in a disaster,” he said.
Though three days have passed after the incident, the forest department has not booked a case. “There is a temple and a church in the area. The local residents burst crackers during the festival. We haven’t received any complaint in this regard,” said Kuttampuzha forest range officer Bineesh Kumar.
Though there is a divisional forest office at Mankulam, Anakulam falls under Kuttampuzha range office, which is located 50 km away from the spot.
Meanwhile, animal rights activists allege that the resentment within the forest force over the political interference to hush up the attack on three DFO-grade officers at Mankulam on January 4 was the reason for inaction. The DFOs were attacked when they arrived at Mankulam to stop entry of people to the pavilion built by the block panchayat on forest land. Ernakulam forest flying squad DFO Manu Sathyan, Munnar assistant conservator of forest Job J Neriyamparambil and Mankulam DFO Subhash were beaten up by a mob when they tried to stop the panchayat from allowing tourists to enter the pavilion. Forest Minister A K Saseendran had convened a meeting to discuss the issue, which formed a committee led by Devikulam RDO to investigate and find out whether the area fell under forest land.
According to activists, some residents have started organising off-roading programmes inside the forest challenging the ban imposed by the forest department. However, the forest officers have refused to stop the violation in protest against the government move to hush up the assault case.
Meanwhile, a farmers’ collective took out a march to Mankulam DFO office on Sunday.