Kannur: A tuskless wild elephant, locally known as a 'mozha', overturned a Rapid Response Team (RRT) jeep at Aralam Farm early Saturday, the second such attack in a week, Forest officials said.

Around 5.30 am, the patrol jeep with five employees was idling at Valayamchal in Block 9 when the elephant charged at the jeep, overturning it, Deputy Forest Range Officer M Shainy Kumar said. Beat Forest Officer Ananthu, driver Rakesh and forest watchers Jibin, Bhaskaran and Akhil escaped with minor injuries, he said.

"This is the second attack on an RRT vehicle within a week. The elephant has started attacking vehicles now," said Aralam grama panchayat president Shobha V. "We also suspect this is the same 'mozha' that killed Aneesh in February," she said.

Aneesh, a daily wage labourer and resident of Block 10, was found dead on February 27, with tell-tale signs of being flung to the ground by an elephant. Shobha said she had to rent a house at Keezhpalli, outside the farm, because returning home after dusk had become too dangerous.

"If my work gets over before 6 pm, I go back to my house in Block 8. Otherwise, I stay at Keezhpalli. Yesterday I finished work only at 9.45 pm. I couldn't risk going home through the farm at that hour. I will be putting the driver's life also in danger because he has to drive back alone at night," she said.

She said residents feel trapped because elephants take over the farm at night. The Forest Department's Rapid Response Teams are implementing Gajamukthi, the state government's programme to drive elephants away from residential areas inside Aralam Farm. But residents say the operation is merely shifting the problem.

"Instead of moving away, the elephants are entering villages outside the farm," Shobha said. Valathode, Vietnam, Chathiroor and Neelayi -- places outside the farm but within Aralam panchayat -- have witnessed repeated elephant incursions in recent weeks.

The RRTs are increasingly finding themselves caught between angry residents and aggressive elephants. On Thursday night, residents of Valathode detained two RRT vehicles after a herd of six elephants, along with a calf, crossed the path of a youth. "We got a call around 11 pm saying the residents had blocked the RRT vehicles. They refused to let them leave unless the ward member and I came and assured them that their lives and property would be protected," Shobha said.

She and the ward member reached the spot around 11 pm. It took around four hours to pacify the residents. "We returned only by 3 am," she said. 

​Aralam Farm, on the fringes of the Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary in Kannur's Iritty taluk, was developed as a tribal rehabilitation project, with around 3,335 tribal families allotted one acre of land each. Residents said the settlement was never adequately protected from elephant incursions, allowing herds from the adjoining sanctuary to roam freely through the farm and turning what was meant to be a rehabilitation project into one of Kerala's worst human-elephant conflict zones.

In 2014, the Oommen Chandy government built a 13-km stone elephant barrier from Valayanchal to Kariyankappu along one side of the sanctuary. The wall remains intact and has largely prevented elephants from entering the farm through that stretch. In 2016, the LDF government sanctioned another 13-km elephant-proof concrete wall from Valayanchal in Block 9 to Pottichapara in Block 13. However, construction has progressed at a snail's pace despite repeated fatalities and sustained protests by residents.

Shobha said the government had recently sanctioned a four-km hanging solar fence between Valathode and Chathiroor, but the project was yet to be put out to tender. "Every morning, I wake up praying that nobody was injured or killed during the night," she said.