CHENNAI: Madras High Court rejected the plea to transfer wild tusker Arikomban to Kerala. The court also stated that there is no need to shift the elephant from its current location. Rebecca Joseph, a native of Kochi, is who filed the petition to transfer Arikomban to Kerala. The petition was heard by the Forest Bench of the High Court. Earlier the Madurai Bench had also rejected the petition and after this, the petition was transferred to the Forest Bench.
Court No. 5 heard the petition this afternoon. The court said that there was no shortage of food and water for Arikomban and the elephant had adapted to the climate. Therefore, there is no reason to stay the Tamil Nadu government's decision to release Arikomban in the upper Kodayar forest area within the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Sanctuary in Tirunelveli Ambasamudram, the court said.

Meanwhile, forest department officials are monitoring Arikomban's movement around the clock from Tirunelveli and relaying information to Kanyakumari, Ambasamudram, and the forest department headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram. Currently, there is no exact information about the whereabouts of Arikomban. The forest department informed that it received a signal at 9 am yesterday morning that Arikomban is in the vicinity of Kodayar Dam.