Operation Malai- A Case Study of Translocation of Six Wild Elephants from the Eastern Ghats Region in Tamilnadu

An elephant clan with only seven elephants in Javadhi hills had occupied a vast home range spread over six districts. The enhanced elephant-human interface in terms of space and time escalated the human-elephant conflict and the resultant economic losses by way of crop and property damage and threat to human lives. Given the grave situation with this miniscule herd, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department decided to translocate the herd to the elephant camps after wide ranging consultation with elephant experts, forest veterinarians and senior forest officers. After obtaining the required permissions and fund for the 'operation malai', as the mission was named, it was decided to take up the translocaion of six elephants as a single, non-stop operation. With no previous experience of this sort, operation malai team faced many challenges in the field. Proper advanced planning, assignment of specific functional roles to the various groups, keeping on hand ready to implementable alternate options and adept handling of various activities under close supervision resulted in the achievement of the mission goal. It achieved lasting solution to a long standing problem of over two decades to the people of six districts. This operation has provided an idea about appropriate strategies and protocols for the development of standard operating procedures (SOP) for wild elephant or wild animal capture/rescue operations and their translocation.