3 tribal youth booked for attacking wild elephants

The accused, identified as P Selvam, 32, T Kalimuthu, 25 and J Arun Kumar, 30, from the Thirumurthimalai settlement, harassed the elephants that came to the forest boundary of Thirumurthimalai reservoir in Udumalpet range on Wednesday. They were booked under Sections 32, 39, and 51 of the Wild Life Protection Act and a search is on to nab them, along with a few others. 

A group of youth from the tribal settlement had gone to graze cattle in the forest area, when they came across three elephants including a calf and began to attack them. 

In different video clips that have gone viral, one of the youth could be seen closely trailing an elephant and thrashing it with a branch of a tree. When the animal retaliated and came charging, the youth managed to escape. And, in another one, a tribal was teasing the animal by making noisss and also hurled a stone towards it. As the infuriated animal came chasing, the youth deftly ran over an elevated rocky surface, while a few others standing above attacked the elephant with stones forcing it to retreat. The men were accompanied by a pack of dogs that kept barking ferociously at the elephants. One among the youth had taken a video of the incident and shared it with his friends, which has now been circulated widely on social media. 

A team from the Forest Department was camping in the tribal settlement to nab the accused, who went into hiding inside the forest. “We have asked the villagers to hand them over to us, if they return,” said an official. 

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Tribal Welfare Association’s Tirupur district secretary G Selvam defended the youth saying they did it to safeguard their lives. 

“They didn’t use sharp objects to harm the elephants, but only small stones and sticks to protect themselves while grazing. Also, they were trained by the Forest Department in elephant driving operations,” said Selvam in a statement to Collector K Vijayakarthikeyan. 

He accused the Forest Department staff of circulating the videos with an aim to tarnish the tribals’ reputation and prevent their appointments as anti-poaching watchers. There are more than 150 tribal families in Thirumurthimalai settlement involved in cattle rearing for their livelihood.