The tragic death of a 15-year-old pregnant elephant in Silent Valley forest of Palakkad district in Kerala is a reminder of the growing conflict between humans and animals and has resulted in the Muslim-majority Malappuram district police registering an FIR against BJP MP and former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi under Section 152 IPC for “wantonly giving provocation with intent to cause riot.”
Terming Malappuram as the country’s most violent district, she alleged that 600 elephants were killed in Kerala every year. Hands are chopped off in communal attacks in the district and poison strewn all over Malappuram district to kill thousands of animals, birds and dogs, she alleged.
Taking a snipe at Rahul Gandhi “for not taking cruelty to animals seriously,” she wanted to know why he had not taken any action so far. How Rahul Gandhi comes in the picture is beyond comprehension.
Those who complained to police against Maneka Gandhi included the Indian Union Muslim League, Youth Congress, Democratic Youth Federation of India, Solidarity Youth Movement and Supreme Court lawyer KR Subhash Chandran.
The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal, meanwhile, took suo motu cognisance of the death of the elephant in Kerala and appointed a joint committee to ascertain the facts and to recommend steps to prevent man-animal conflict in the future.
The Bench comprising Justice K Ramakrishnan and expert member Saibal Dasgupta said the case was being taken up in an effort to avoid such incidents and provide a long-term strategy to reduce mananimal conflicts in areas adjoining forests.
The Forest Department officials have arrested a man who confessed to preparing a snare consisting of coconut packed with explosives and smeared with jaggery to kill elephants intruding into farm lands growing cash crops. The smell of jaggery and coconut attract elephants.
The police are on the lookout for two of his accomplices, owners of a nearby farm. The crux of the problem is the gradual encroachment of forests on the Western Ghats, home to many endangered plants and animals. Recognised by UNESCO as one of the world’s eight most important biodiversity hotspots, these forests and hills are also the source of numerous rivers, including the Cauvery.
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests set up the Madhav Gadgil Committee in 2010 which called for the entire Western Ghats to be classified as ecologically sensitive and spared of any further destructive development. The government, with an eye on farmers’ vote bank, shelved the report and appointed another commission under Kasturirangan.
His recommendations have also been put on hold. The need of the hour to solve the man-animal conflict is not another report by expert committee but determination to implement recommendations in hand. Invasion of an industrialised model into the habitats of other species must stop.