Kerala Forest Minister orders probe into death of two tribals in suspected wild elephant attack in Athirappilly

Kerala Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran
| Photo Credit: H. VIBHU

Kerala Forest Minister A.K. Saseendran on Tuesday ordered an investigation into the suspected wild elephant attack that claimed the lives of two tribal people in the Athirappilly forests in Thrissur district. 

The Chief Wildlife Warden will head the probe into the incident, which has sparked protests and created a sense of insecurity in the rural locality. 

In a statement, Mr. Saseendran said the deceased – Satheesh and Ambika – were camping in the forest to harvest wild honey. After the duo failed to return home, their relatives registered a missing person complaint with the local forest authorities. 

Forest officials rushed to the spot and found Satheesh dead in suspicious circumstances. The police and local volunteers fished out Ambika’s body from the nearby river later. They have launched an investigation, including a post-mortem examination, to ascertain the exact cause of the deaths.

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan blamed the deaths on the Forest department’s “lack of zeal” in forecasting and mitigating human-wildlife conflict situations. 

He said wild elephant attacks claimed at least three lives in Kerala in the past 48 hours. “The government seemed to care less. It has left the sizeable settler-farmer community abutting forests and forest-dwellers to their fate,” he said.

Mr. Satheesan accused the Forest department of being clueless about wild elephant movements and their intrusions into human habitations. He said the department seemed incapable of a coherent mitigatory response to the escalating human-wildlife conflict situation in the State., pointing out that wildlife attacks claimed 18 lives in Kerala in the past three months alone.

In February, wild animal attacks claimed the lives of five persons in a single week, he said. 

Given Kerala’s extensive forest cover and high population density, he stated that citizens – primarily settler-farmers, plantation workers, and their families – were highly vulnerable to wildlife attacks and raids on farmlands.

He said the unchecked wild boar menace had rendered tuber cultivation impossible in large swathes of the State. Wildlife raids on farmlands have cratered Kerala’s teetering rural economy. 

Mr. Satheesan asked the government to initiate proactive steps to save human lives or face street protests.