Kabali continues his ruckus by blocking vehicles

CHALAKUDY: The male elephant Kabali, which is in musth, blocked vehicles. Lorries got trapped while Kabali blocked the road. A few vehicles including a lorry carrying tea from Malakappara got blocked for an hour. Another lorry which was headed to Malakappara had to turn back one kilometer.

The vehicles were able to continue their journey only after Kabali turned to the Sholayar Power House road.

Three days ago, Kabali, blocked the road for one-and-a-half hours. Twenty vehicles got blocked on the road. With this, people began to fear travelling on the Sholayar road. The forest department have increased the security after the elephant in musth began to pose danger to the travelling vehicles. Two vehicles and more forest department employees have been deployed for monitoring the area, said Vazhachal DFO, R Lekshmi.

Four vehicles will be there on Saturday and Sunday. In addition, five tribal officers will be deployed for rescue missions. The duty of the group is to scare away the elephant if it gets on the road. Tourists were not allowed along this path yesterday. This ban could continue today also. Athirapally Panchayat President, KK Rijesh, have asked the District Collector to take action against the elephant which is causing continuous difficulties to the tourism sector.

The forest officials have said that it is not possible to shoot tranquilizers at elephants on musth. The musth had formed one and a half months ago on the elephant. Now it is at its peak and this will continue for few more weeks. In such a situation if the elephant is shot with a tranquilizer, it might even lead to death. The elephant is approaching the road occasionally because it is suffering from great pain.