Elephant chasers of Chalakudy are on constant vigil to avoid a ‘conflict’

Venkateshwaran, a young Divisional Forest Officer of Chalakudy in Thrissur, and his men have been on their toes since the morning hours at Chiklayi in the Athirappilly forest stretch on a rainy day in the second week of June. An alert call from an elephant watcher on the presence of a herd of wild elephants near the human habitation of Kumbidammudi, a fragmented forest patch in the rainforest of Athirappilly, which forms part of the Western Ghats, spurred the team members to action. Two drone pilots quickly launched their remotely piloted aircraft systems to zero in on the exact location of the animals. Relying on the drones’ inputs, a group of animal trackers moved towards the area where the elephants had appeared.