CHENNAI: The ghost of ‘Madukkarai Maharaj’, the wild elephant that died in captivity, a day after it was tranquilised, would wonder what divided its fate from that of other members of its herd. In wildlife parlance, the healthy tusker was killed for just being an elephant.
If only the Hill Area Conservation Authority Rules had been followed or forests were not encroached for developmental activities, the jumbo would not have earned titles like crop raider, rogue and kattaiyan. It was the first captured elephant in Tamil Nadu to die in captivity.
To be precise, Operation Maharaj failed highly due to lack of expertise and professionalism, confirmed confidential foresters, who were part of the failed operation Maharaj and the successful operation Malai, when six jumbos were captured and rehabilitated. Informed sources also shared a few valid points that are yet to be reported to wildlife headquarters.
First, on technical grounds, there is no proper scientific data on crop raiders, including that of Maharaj, with the department. Second, the forest department, which formed a committee of experts on Asiatic Elephants, field biologists, veterinarians from Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University and wildlife enthusiasts during ‘operation Malai’ near Tiruvannamalai in 2013, failed to do such a coordinated team work in Coimbatore.
Sedation after-care was the major reason for the jumbo's death, the sources said refuting the official version there were no technical failures in the rescue operation. It should also be noted that The Nilgiris biosphere comprising Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has wildlife experts and independent scientists specialising in forest ecology.
Field biologists like Raman Sukumar (expert in Asian Elephant ecology), A.J.T. Johnsingh (Independent wildlife consultant), Ajay Desai (advisor on Asian elephants) and A. Kumaraguru (conservation scientist) who have earlier provided services to Tamil Nadu forest department should have been consulted.
