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| Died in captivity. rogue elephant. Kolakolli. Kerala www.flickr.com |
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| rogue elephant. Kolakolli. Kerala www.youtube.com |
The `rogue' elephant in the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary in Thiruvananthapuram is one of a kind. He gained considerable notoriety because he would go crazy and drool upon seeing jack-fruit farms, hence the tribals called it `Chakkamadan' (jack-fruit freak) because of its fondness for ripe jack-fruits.
When he is on an eating spree, he does not like to be disturbed and he uses his weapon - threats to get the tribes out of his way. The forest officials, vets and their entourage went on the trail of this rogue elephant, barring rainy days, slushy, slippery paths, but could not do anything to stop the animal. Even with Kumki (trained elephant), they slogged it out at the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary, whatever they did it ended in fiasco.
Kolakolli', aged 30 years (master executioner), is believed to have killed 12 people in that region over the last seven years, but they did not have enough evidence to connect the death with this particular elephant. During jack fruit season, he would stalk there at night and leave the place before sunrise. But, in recent time he stayed there whole day amidst the jack-fruit trees, ripping them apart and causing severe damage to the farms. His fondness for jack fruit was such that his body odor emanated jack-fruit smell, according to the tribes who were living in anxiety and terror. Kerala State Forest Ministry wanted the elephant trapped at any cost to save the sanctuary and the people living there. The funny thing was on a couple of occasions, the tranquilizer shots hit the right spot, but Kolakolli had successfully shaken off the effects and was back on his feet, getting ready to go on an eating binge - what else?, bunches of jack fruits. The rogue elephant, it was discussed, preferred soft food - bananas, tapioca plants, etc,. The forest department decided to get the animal captive and there was no guarantee that he would give up his eating habit, if taken elsewhere.
The elephant was captured in 2006 and sent to the training camp. After a few weeks, unfortunately, Kolakolli', who had hogged the limelight and media for a pretty long time, collapsed dead. Reason: cardiac arrest. Perhaps, he became depressed upon losing his freedom and the chance to lay his trunks on the juicy fruits!! Soon after his death the near by tribal villages wore a veil of gloom over the death of that elephant. They wished that he had been relocated.
Similarly in June 2016 The Tamil Nadu forest officials tracked and finally captured a rogue elephant called Madukkarai Maharaj, 20 year old tusker who had damaged lots of farms and killed three people over a short period. Unlike Kolakolli, he did not have any quirk in his personality. Nor did he have any weird eating habits. But, he was dominating his area of activity. He was carefully given a tranquilizer shot and sedated. Later with the help of Kumkis, the rouge elephant was taken captive. Unlike
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| Rogue elephant Madukkarai Maharaj, died in captivity. www.covaipost.com |
A few days ago on the busy near-by railroad track a 25 year old elephant was hit by a speeding train and it died on the spot. The jumbo, came looking for food and water from the nearby wooded area.
Ref:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolakolli
http://www.covaipost.com/coimbatore/madukkarai-maharaj-dies-ngos-demand-enquiry/
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/article3195424.ece