Voices to #SaveChinnathambi get louder, petition to set him into wild

Coimbatore: Under #SaveChinnathambi campaign, as many as 60 people including environmentalists, animal activists, the public from different walks of life, residents of Anaikatti, heads and representatives of organisations working for the animal welfare, on Monday petitioned district collector Mr T N Hariharan urging him to ensure that the wild tusker is captured and relocated into
Anaikatti or the Thadagam valley, which he treats as his home, instead of being trained as a ‘kumki’.

Chinna thambi should be let into the wild instead of being caged and tamed. The High Court decision on making the wild tusker a ‘kumki’ must be revoked, as the same is equal to murdering him, the petition said. Blaming the man-animal conflict on the encroachments by brick kilns that are functional in Anaikatti which is an elephant corridor, the activists who submitted the petition demanded that the pathway of elephants is cleared.

After submitting the petition under leadership of advocate Panneerselvam, a group of members held posters with an image of the wild tusker and shouted
slogans in support of Chinna thambi outside the district collectorate campus on routine grievance day.