Elephant that killed 11 villagers in rice raids captured in Kerala

Animal fitted with GPS collar and released in state's Periyar Tiger Reserve

Arikomban was captured after a five-year reign of terror in Idukki district of India's Kerala state. AFP

Forest officials in India’s southern state of Kerala have captured a wild elephant that killed at least 11 people over five years as it raided homes and shops for rice and other grains.

Arikomban, a 30-year-old male whose name means “rice tusker”, was caught after a month-long hunt involving 150 searchers and four kumki elephants — captive animals trained to help in the capture of wild elephants — in the hills of Kerala's Idukki district.

Arikomban was cornered and subdued on Sunday in a nine-hour operation. The animal was hit with five tranquilliser darts.

Hundreds of villagers lined the road, clapping, hooting and taking pictures, as the bound and blindfolded elephant was taken away from the area in a lorry.

Arikomban was fitted with a GPS collar and released deep in the forests of Kerala's Periyar Tiger Reserve, with an eight-member team including a vet tracking the animal's movements.

“The elephant has a wound on its trunk from its previous fight with an elephant. It was treated with antibiotics and the wounds dressed before the release,” said Dr Arun Zacharia, the vet who oversaw Arikomban's capture.

“We have fitted a radio caller and are monitoring its movement.

“Elephants are adaptive animals. The bulls are solitary and it will be fine on its own in its new environment.”

Forestry officials had initially planned to capture Arikomban and train it to become a kumki. They set up a dummy grain shop to lure the elephant but the plan was scrapped after a legal challenge by wildlife activists who asked for the animal to be relocated to a forest.

India is home to the world’s largest population of Asian elephants, a species listed as endangered after a massive decline in numbers.

The South Asian nation has nearly 27,000 elephants in the wild, according to the most recent survey in 2017, but their population is declining because of shrinking forests, human encroachment on their habitat and poaching for their body parts.

Some Indian states are trying to reduce human-elephant encounters by tagging the animals with radio collars to alert local people of their movements, and through campaigns to educate people on dealing with the animals if encountered.