Listen to tusker Chinna Thambi's travails

I have seen, people will go so far to express their love for animals... unfortunately not in my case.. Oh! Sorry.. I am Chinna Thambi, a 25-year-old wild tusker who is, no, was in the Thadgam region of Coimbatore till recently.

I am writing this from a cage of iron rods inside a lorry. I lost something somewhere. And this letter is to figure it out… What have I lost? But why? Where things went wrong? What did I do?

Long back an entire town came together to write a petition to the district collector to drop the plan to make Chinna Thambi, a kumki, ie me. (Kumki is a term for a trained captive elephant used in operations to trap wild elephants.) I came to hear that I created havoc in villages near Thadagam on the outskirts of Coimbatore for nearly a year that I damaged crops and houses in the region.

Following complaints from the local villagers, the forest department captured me on January 26 and released in the Valparai forest range a few days later. They fitted a radio collar on me which reveal how much distance I covered.

Speaking to the media, Forest Minister Dindugal Sreenivasan said the government will be left with no option but to capture the animal and tame it to be used as a kumki in the larger interest of safeguarding life and property of the villagers. The minister's comment sparked a debate on social media with many of them urging the Tamil Nadu government to reconsider its decision to convert me into a kumki. After some days an elephant expert Ajay Desai, submitted a report stating that the number of people killed or injured by elephants ranges from 10 to 27 every year in the forest division, meaning an average of two human casualties every month are reported.

Desai’s earlier reports on me and Vinayagan, another elephant from Thadagam, had said that we were habituated to human habitations and crop raiding and we were later

translocated. This creates fear psychosis in people exposed to elephants and undermines their quality of life in addition to other economic losses caused by elephants.

"It also means that the fear does not allow effective crop protection as people are not willing to face and drive away elephants which they consider as being dangerous. This not only increases crop or property damage, but also emboldens elephants to enter deeper and more frequently into human areas and thus escalate conflict," said the report, highlighting the conflict situation in the forest division, which the Forest Department submitted to the Madras High Court on Monday.

Desai also said I must be captured and tamed. Otherwise, it may influence younger elephants in the wild to become crop raiders.

In his 14-page report submitted to Madras High Court, Desai says an evaluation of the elephant’s movement, post-translocation, shows that it’s completely habituated to human beings.

Dr C R Jayapraksh, Professor of PSG College of Arts and Science, had noted, “People still loves animals. The efforts to control the intrusion of elephants through trenches, solar fences and pillar constructions have failed because of poor maintenance. The already under-staffed Forest Department is struggling to deploy adequate watchers in areas prone to elephant intrusion. Experts on Asian elephants like Ajay Desai are tagged as problematic persons by clicktivists. Hence many of the forest officials who are willing to offer solutions are keeping their fingers crossed. Sentiments prevail over sense on social media."

Posters with the slogan 'Save Chinna Thambi' have appeared in villages in and around Thadgam and Anaikatti. The residents were against the forest department's proposal to translocate me. Due to my issue the whole Tamil Nadu ot to know about certain environmental problems which were limited to a specific place.

“People are talking about human-elephant conflicts and encroachment issues. They should fight against the encroachment of forest and habitat should be regenerated. Let them fight for corridors. If you want elephants to live, these corridors should be protected and the other corridors should be identified," said journalist Jabez John Anand, who is also an elephant enthusiast. Of course, he has the point.

As I said earlier I was captured and translocated but I walked out of the forest by January 31, entered human settlements and has been moving along agricultural areas and human habitations since then. People drove me back to the forest to change my behaviour, but nothing worked.

Then 600 farmers from Coimbatore went all the way to Chennai to protest again. And it became a political issue. It had to be treated as a law and order issue and consequently there was no option but to take action. The local farmers are saying if someone bring me back, then they are not responsible for me. So there is a threat to me. Also, if elephants come downhill into towns, they will get hurt by electric wires, many of which are low hanging.

Then Madras High Court heard a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by animal welfare activists opposing state government's move to tame me. The court said that I should not be put to any physical discomfort. The court issued a notice to the Union and state governments besides the forest department on the PIL. Thus Tamil Nadu government dropped its plan to tame me into a kumki.

Advocate General Vijay Narayan informed the Madras High Court that the government wanted me to live in my natural habitat. Narayan was responding to a PIL filed by animal welfare activists opposing the state government's move.

As I went inside the villages, towns and agricultural areas, people may think Chinna Thambi doesn’t care about people or crackers and elephants like me can be extremely dangerous --- damaging crops and property and also bring along other elephants to do the same thing.

I do care about people. I won’t attack anyone intentionally. I haven’t killed anyone yet… They could have driven me to a nearest forest. They may have thought this as an obvious choice but may be because of conflicts and confusion that may arise again as I move in the direction of the forest. If I suddenly changes my direction then I can move through areas where people are unaware of my movement...may be… but, I wont react to people even when they are just 15-20 feet away. Even when there are a large number of people around making noise, I use to ignore them completely. I use to walk into holding areas where kumkis and staff are based and drinks water from the tank inside the compound. I interacted with Kumki Kaleem and I used to walk through villages as seen from several videos. I don’t distinguish between human habitations and forests. I will come out again if relocated to the forest. But people are not even trying to understand me... Of course, I also have feelings and emotions.. I will also get hurt...

For me food is not really a problem, but the habit of feeding on crops drives me. If I translocated, sooner or later I will start raiding crops. So the last option is “Capture, bring into captivity”. This seems to be the only option open to the department. Since I am completely habituated to people, I can get easily tamed. So the planning and operations to capture Chinna Thambi, me, has started after the Madras High court passed an interim order directing the Tamil Nadu government to capture me. I was found loitering in sugar cane fields and they shot me and lured with jackfruits which is my favourite. My excursions around several places like Maduthukkulam, Udumalpettai came to an end and I was tranquillised and captured by officials of the forest department.

But I am extremely happy for one thing. People have started fighting for the right of animals, for environment. We need to live. We have to be protected. I know people should be safe and secure, but for their sake and greed please don’t destroy us..., never allow us to go extinct. Our lives are also equally important as yours.. Be humane...

Thank You for all your prayers,

Chinna Thambi.