SC Dismisses Plea By State Of Kerala Against HC Directive To Relocate Rogue Elephant ‘Arikomban’

The Supreme Court today dismissed Kerala state’s plea against the directive of the Kerala High Court to relocate a rogue elephant named ‘Arikomban’ from Idukki to Parambikulam wildlife sanctuary.

The government wanted to first capture the animal and monitor it.

The State’s counsel argued that “Capture, tame it, and then take a call. It is habituated to rice and it is raiding homes etc. Kerala is a small state milord.”

However, a bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud rejected the plea after the recording Committee of Experts (CoE) advised the Kerala High Court on the elephant, and recommended that the animal be released in the sanctuary.

On March 30, a Division Bench of Justices AK Jayashankaran Nambiar and Gopinath P stated that capturing the elephant would do more harm than good and appointed a Committee of Experts (CoE) to advise the court on the nature and habits of the wild elephant.

The Court stated that it was aware of the instances of cruelty to captive elephants in the State, and didn’t want to add more elephants to the long list of hapless ‘converts’ as it violated the fundamental duty under Article 51A (g) of our Constitution to protect wildlife and have compassion for the living creatures.

Therefore, the bench stated that the objective should be for striking a balance between the conflicting interests of the residents of the localities concerned and the elephants in the area.

Hence, it asked CoE to examine whether there are alternative options to prevent the elephant in question from causing disturbances in human settlements. On April 5, based on the CoE recommendations, the High Court directed that the Elephant be transferred to Parambikulam wildlife sanctuary in the Palakkad district.