No capturing of Chinna Thambi: Massive protest against forest department in Tamil Nadu

Guwahati: A latest decision of the state forest department in Tamil Nadu has created much havoc and protests amongst the wildlife lovers and ordinary masses in the state concerning the capture and training of a wild elephant named Chinna Thambi. The huge protests by the protesters against the capturing and taming of the wild elephant shows the strong bond of love between the humankind and wildlife in today’s world.

This is an incident of Coimbatore region in Tamil Nadu where the admirers and lovers of the wild but very friendly elephant Chinna Thambi has even formed a fan club by the name Chinna Thambi Fans Association to make sure that the forest department does not get to capture the elephant.

Notably, the primary effort of the forest department was to capture the wild elephant and release him in the deep forest area, but it failed and the elephant returned. This made the state Forest Minister Dindigul C Sreenivasan to announce that Chinna Thambi will be captured and trained as a kumki. A Kumki is a tamed elephant which is used to capture wild elephants and are used for a wildlife safari. This enraged the people in Coimbatore to such an extent that they even formed a fan club in the elephant's name and staged a strong protest against its capture.

The forest department also has no option left as they are looking for protecting people and the agricultural fields by keeping the elephant away. But they are made to face protests from people only as 45-odd people staged a protest in Coimbatore. Although the department has this point of view that the wild animal will be harmful to men and to their agricultural productions, the local people have another view on this. According to the locals, Chinna Thambi is a very friendly elephant and there is no harm from him. The outcome is that his fans have formed a fan club, circulated hostages like #SaveChinnaThambi in the social media along with also sharing music videos featuring the elephant and selfies with Chinna Thambi.

A forest official said, “We have relocated some people from Pollachi village and brought kumki Kaleem to the spot. After bringing one more kumki, Chinna Thambi is expected to be captured in a few days.”

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