Kalpetta: BJP and UDF have called off Thursday’s Wayanad hartal to protest the killing of a tribal boy by a tusker at Muthanga after the forest department ordered capturing and rehabilitating of the elephant as soon as possible.
The order came late in the evening after a series of protests against the killing and expressing solidarity with fasting women demanding the same.
The women of Vadakkanad village who were on an indefinite hunger strike in front of the Wildlife Warden’s office at Sulthan Bathery as the tusker wreaked havoc in the region for many months and also called it off.
The elephant killed Mahesh, 11, a resident of the tribal settlement inside jungle near Ponkuzhi, Wednesday morning.
The Vadakkanad Grama Samrakshana Samithy, the action council of villagers, also had said in a press statement that the forest department had earlier captured and radio-collared the problem tusker that killed the boy.
Following a futile agitation of their men, women started the strike.
The agitation of farmers under the banner of Vadakkanadu Grama Samrakshana Samithy started on March 16 with the support of the entire people of the village which includes three wards (1, 2, 3 ) of the Noolpuzha village panchayat with 2000 households and more than 6,000 population, the most affected by elephant raids.
The women started the agitation when the government failed to keep its promises.
The report of the forest department also had confirmed that the elephant which attacked the child was the same radio-collared pachyderm that had attacked many in the past, killing a few.
