The Hindu : Kerala News : A moment to cherish for Aynichal villagers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

A moment to cherish for Aynichal villagers

K.A. Martin

VETTAMPARA (KOTHAMANGALAM): It was a tragedy that turned into a spectacle for those whose close proximity to receding forest lines and endangered wild life have bred both concern and curiosity. More than 1,500 people cheered as the three-year-old baby elephant was hauled out of a 20-feet well at Aynichal, a village that is precariously perched at the edge of wild nature.

The people had come from as far away as Oonnukal, near Kothamangalam, to witness what had happened to the baby elephant. The television channels and newspaper reports did play their role. But none of them would have forced T.A. Krishnankutty, a daily wage labourer from Oonnukal to forgo his work for the day and rush to see the plight of the baby elephant.

“Is it not a wonder of nature,” he asks, with a broad smile and a self-assuredness that would not be possible without a certain fancy for the elephants he so frequently confronts while at work.

For the dozens who were perched atop the rubber and teak trees from 10 a.m. to take an aerial view of the rescue operations, nothing appeared to matter as some of them, wielding mobile phone cameras, were seen adjusting their seats for better view.

P.V. Arun, a student of automobile mechanics from a nearby village, decided that the baby elephant was more important to him for the day. He was there, throughout the rescue operations.

So were hundreds of others, including housewives from Thundam, who waded waste deep Periyar waters to see what was happening to the baby elephant.

K. A. George, a rubber tapper from Podippara, said he left his tapping job in a rush to see what was happening to the baby elephant as the Forest Department officials and the police personnel rushed to the rubber estate.

M.K. Dileep, a carpenter from Muthamkuzhi, is a daily wage earner. He did forgo his work wanting to be part of the work the Forest Department officials did to rescue the baby elephant.

The enthusiasm of people like him were evident as they braved the five-kilometre unmotorable road from Vettampara to Aynichal to the spot where the baby elephant was trapped.

The 50-odd police and Forest Department personnel who oversaw the rescue operations looked tired at the end of it all.

Their smiles, however, hid their weary work as the baby elephant, sedate and uncertain, was helped into a waiting mini-lorry to be taken to Kodanadu elephant rescue and training centre.

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