Wildlife activists demand strong action against man who chased young wild elephant in TN forest reserve

Chennai, Feb 17 (IANS) Wildlife and social activists of Tamil Nadu are seeking stringent action against a person who chased a young wild elephant in a forest reserve of the state in his vehicle.

Palanisami Muthuraman, a wildlife enthusiast and social activist from Coimbatore told IANS, “Stringent action will be taken against the person who chased a young elephant in his vehicle at night in the reserve. He scared the hapless young animal by blowing the horn incessantly, putting on loud music and fog lights of his vehicle in the pitch dark in contravention of all rules of the reserve.”

This incident is a clear violation of the Wild Life Protection Act and can lead to an imprisonment of three years.

The violation took place at the core tiger reserve area Navamalai in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) on Thursday night.

The incident came to light after the offender Mithun, who hails from Kottur in Tamil Nadu, uploaded the video of him chasing the wild elephant in his white Scorpio.

The forest department has already commenced a preliminary investigation into the matter.

It has to be seen how Mithun was able to enter the core tiger reserve area without crossing the Aliyar and Monkey Fall checkpoints where stringent night bans are in place.

Palanisami told IANS that vehicles cannot be allowed into the forest area and crossing the Aliyar and Monkey Fall checkpoints without the permission of the authorities was impossible.

He said that in Navamalai there were only a few houses and that Aliyar and Monkey Falls checkpost officials have a list of the people who live inside Navamalai and their vehicle numbers.

C Rajeev, Director, Centre for Policy and Development Studies (CPDS), a think tank based out of Chennai called for strong action against the offender for harassing the young elephant in his own home which is a protected area.

He said that the violation was grave and a matter of serious concern.

C Rajeev said that this would fall under the gambit of wildlife hunting.

Meanwhile Chief Wildlife Warden of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department told media persons that the act the offender indulged in was a serious offense and that necessary action would be taken against him.