KOCHI: With the Supreme Court dismissing Kerala’s petition challenging the Kerala High Court directive to relocate Arikomban, the rogue elephant of Chinnakanal, the state government is left with no option but to shift the elephant to Parambikulam.
The High Court had given one week for Kerala government to find out an alternative location. The government could not find a new location and the SC has refused to interfere in the High Court order.
The residents of Parambikulam, Vazhachal and Nelliyampathy are on protest mode against releasing the elephant in Parambikulam.
The office of the forest minister said that a decision will be taken after discussing the issue with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday.
Refusing to review the direction to shift Arikomban to Parambikulam, the High Court had observed that if the state can find an alternative place to translocate the elephant within a week, it can shift the elephant to the new location. If the state fails to find an alternative location, the animal should be shifted to Parambikulam.
On Monday, the SC bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice P S Narasimha and Justice J B Pardiwala declined to interfere in the HC direction observing that the recommendation to relocate the elephant was made by a committee of experts. “You have an expert committee and the experts have said that the elephant has to be relocated. We will not interfere. If the expert panel has suggested something, the state cannot then go over and above” said Chief Justice Chandrachud.
Though the matter was not listed on Monday, the bench led by the Chief Justice agreed to hear the plea after an urgent mentioning was made by senior advocate Jayant Muthuraj on behalf of the state.
The counsel mentioned that the High Court has given one week to relocate the elephant to an alternative place, failing which it has to be shifted to Parambikulam. He highlighted that the elephant has killed seven people and destroyed several houses at Anayirangal. Therefore the state has decided to relocate the animal to the elephant training centre to tame it. However, the High Court stopped that move and directed to release the elephant in the forest. After the state’s plea was dismissed, advocate V K Biju appearing on behalf of settlers in Parambikulam area, moved another petition. The bench allowed him to mention the petition on Tuesday.