PALAKKAD: Three agonising days in knee-deep water and then a heart-rending death.
The passing away of the pregnant wild elephant in the Veliyar stream after crackers meant to snare wild animals exploded in its mouth has highlighted the lack of adequate field staff in the state forest department as well as the need to deploy enough informants along the forest fringes to provide timely alerts about illegal activities.
This has been even more starkly underlined after Dr David Abraham, veterinary surgeon who conducted the post mortem of the pregnant wild elephant, made a disturbing observation.
Forest personnel and locals might have first sighted the elephant on May 23. But Dr Abraham says she must have been injured at least a fortnight before that.
"We came to this conclusion based on the large size of the maggots (worms) seen in the wounds. We are, however, still not sure about what she had eaten," he said.
Dr Abraham said the firecrackers or explosives were not lethal.
"Or else the face of the pachyderm would have blown off. Here, the upper jaw and lower jaw had been damaged badly and the tongue had been infested with worms. Moreover, there was no blood which showed that the wound was old," he said.
The veterinary surgeon said the elephant had been found standing in knee-deep water. "She had not eaten for more than two weeks. She was pale and weak," he said.
Right from the moment he set eyes on the elephant, the prognosis was bad. "The chances of its survival were remote as it is impossible to treat major wounds even when they are from a dart. The wounds had turned septic and the animal had been starving for many days. It collapsed in the water of the Veliyar stream while being driven to the banks by the kumki elephants," Dr Abraham recounted.
But could the tragedy have been avoided if the elephant had been spotted early and received early treatment?
Dr PS Easa, former director of the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), Peechi and member of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Asian Elephants Specialists Group (AsESG) had a suggestion to address such costly delays.
"In the past, both the excise department and the forest department deployed informants in almost all forest areas to snoop on illicit hooch brewers, ganja cultivators and poachers. However, over the years, their numbers have dwindled. The intelligence network needs to be strengthened. It is only based on these reliable inputs that forest personnel can act effectively," he said.
S Guruvayurappan, project officer of the Wildlife Protection Society of India (South India), added his two cents. "The Vana Samrakshana Samithis (Eco Development Committees) need to be strengthened and farmers need to be dissuaded from cultivating fruits on the forest fringes which attract wild animals. Moreover, conservation can only be successful if the locals are taken into confidence. Since it is a joint investigation by the police and the forest department, we hope justice will be ensured, " he said.
Pramod Krishnan, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) (Eastern circle) spoke of a few strides in the right direction.
“Usually when there is an incident of this type like a major injury, the wild animal has to be immobilised before it can be treated. We have now trained three kumki elephants which are in Palakkad to drive away wild elephants when they enter the plains from the forests. Earlier, kumkis had to be brought from Tamil Nadu. There are kumki elephants in Wayanad also. We have initiated massive combing operations from Thursday in the fringe areas of the forests to detect the presence of any explosives," he said.
Dr Arun Sakaria, senior veterinary surgeon, highlighted the need to change the outlook of people towards the protection of wildlife.
He also spoke of the kumki elephants in Wayanad that Pramod Krishnan had touched upon. "We have trained eleven kumki elephants in Wayanad and we also have two lorries to transport any wild elephants that have strayed across,” he said.
But then even the presence of kumki elephants by themselves cannot always help as was seen in the case of the pregnant wild elephant.
“The first action of forest watchers when they see a wild elephant is to chase it back into the forests. However, when they tried to do so with kumki elephants in the case of the pregnant wild female elephant, she could not move and collapsed. Moreover, even if the animal had to be treated, it could be done only in the forests as the locals will not allow it to be done in the plains as they consider it to be a crop raider," said Pradeep, an elephant enthusiast.
The answers then are still being sought. Meanwhile, what remains are the raw emotions a true tragedy has evoked.
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