Kochi: The Kerala High Court in a special sitting on Thursday evening ordered to defer the mission to trap rogue tusker 'Arikkomban' till next Wednesday.
The order was pronounced in a suo motu case taken up by the court following a plea filed by an animal lovers group, 'Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' (SPCA) based in Thiruvananthapuram, reported Manorama News.
SPCA Ernakulam secretary P K Sajeev has also filed complaints with the Animal Welfare Board of India and the Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The development comes at a time the mission to trap the rice-loving jumbo, which has repeatedly caused trouble in Idukki's Santhanpara and Chinnakanal panchayats, was to be launched on Sunday.
The mock drill for the same was supposed to happen on Saturday. Two kumki elephants, Vikram and Surya, had already reached Santhanpara for the mission and two more kumkis were supposed to be brought from Wayanad.
Santhanpara panchayat president Liju Varghese told Manorama News: “The animal lovers have no idea about the trials and tribulations we have been going through. There are families here whose homes were damaged by the tusker. It has also ruined ration shops, and killed and injured people. We hope the court will take an action in our favour on Wednesday.”