
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Growing incidents of wildlife attacks and the presence of wild animals including bison, elephant, and wild boar are becoming a major concern for the tribal residents and villagers of Vithura grama panchayat. On Monday, 45-year-old Sivanandan Kani, who went for work in the early morning, was attacked by a wild elephant leaving the tribal settlements across Vithura panchayat in shock.
The person suffered serious spine injuries and rib cage fracture in the attack and is undergoing treatment at Medical College Hospital. According to forest authorities, the incident happened around 4am near Attumanpuram at Manali ward in Vithura and the RRT (Rapid Response Team) arrived and shifted the victim to Vithura Hospital. “The person is out of danger. He was shifted to ward by 3pm,” said the official. There are around 22 tribal settlements in Manali ward alone.
According to villagers and tribal people, they are terrorised by wild animals almost every day. “We are scared to venture out. Majority of us are daily wage workers. We are scared to send our children to school. There is apathy from the part of the forest authorities. We don’t get their service on time often,” said 56-year-old Manoharan Kani, Kallankudi settlement.
He alleged that it has been more than a year since the agriculture department sanctioned Rs 1.25 crore for implementing projects to protect the farmland from wildlife intrusion.
Manali ward member and vice-president of Vithura grama panchayat Manjusha G said that wildlife attacks and presence have gone up exponentially in the past two years.
“We want a permanent solution to the issue. Around three years ago a person was attacked by a bear and two years back a person died in a bison attack. Solar fencing is ineffective and non-operational and construction of trenches is progressing at a snail’s pace,” said Manjusha. She said that the forest department is yet to prepare a project report and submit it to the agriculture department to avail of allocated funds.
There are five forest sections under Palode forest range and there is only one RRT team to cover the entire area. “We get multiple calls almost every day as wildlife presence in human settlements is becoming very common. Now it’s spreading beyond the tribal settlements. There is only one vehicle and one RRT team and they are often busy attending to calls. All we have is a few crackers to chase away the animals back to the forest,” said an official of Kallar region.
The official said that a trench will be constructed for three more kilometres. “Once the work of the trenches is completed, all vast areas including the Vithura panchayat will be protected from wild elephants,” said the officer.