“How can you blame over-population when the recent census has indicated a sharp decline in wild animal population,” asked former chief wildlife warden O P Kaler. “These demands were not made when the Wildlife Protection Act was amended recently. There is no chance for declaring wild boar as vermin as the species has been included in Schedule 2 recently. Besides the state has given the right to panchayat presidents to order culling of wild boar that destroy crops. They have already killed more than 4,000 wild boars during the past two years,” he said.

“Why are people talking about controlling wildlife population when there are other proven models to reduce man-animal conflict,” asked Asian elephant researcher at the Centre For Conservation and Research in Sri Lanka Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan.

“Why is it that Vietnam, which has the lowest elephant population in the world, less than 100 elephants, still has conflict? Kerala can study the model implemented by Nature Conservation Foundation at Valparai in Tamil Nadu. Around 48 people had died at Valparai in Tamil Nadu over the past three decades. The conflict reduced by 60% and there has not been any casualty during the past five years. Numerous studies have brought out anomalies in the population estimation methods currently being used. So I am a bit unsure how we can conclude that the numbers, particularly that of species such as elephants, have gone up. The population control project to control reproduction of macaques in Himachal Pradesh was a huge failure,” he said.

On Day 5, Karnataka joins jumbo mission

An 18-member team comprising forest officials and veterinary experts from Karnataka on Thursday joined their Kerala counterparts in the mission to tranquilise and capture rogue tusker Belur Makhna, which killed a farmer in Wayanad last week. The action comes reportedly post intervention of high-level forest officials. During the mission to capture Thanneerkomban, the late radio-collared elephant from Karnataka that entered Mananthavady town on February 2 and caused panic, the forest team from the neighbouring state had reached Mananthavady the first day itself to translocate the animal. However, this time, the team joined the mission to capture Belur Makhna, another radio-collared elephant from Karnataka, only on the fifth day even after forest department officials from Kerala kept communicating with them. Meanwhile, the mission to capture the tusker bore no fruit on the day and will now resume on Friday. The presence of a second rogue elephant is adding to the challenges in the mission. Dr Arun Zachariah, the wildlife vet who has successfully completed similar missions before, will also join the mission on Friday.

Elephant population in Kerala

• 2017: 5,706

• 2023: 2,386

Tiger population in Kerala

• 2018: 190

• 2023: 213

Tiger population in Wayanad forest

• 2018: 120

• 2023: 84

Wild stats

• Total forest area 11,524.149 sq km

• Percentage of forest area 29.65%

• Reserved forests 6,450.913 sq km

• Proposed reserve 285.093 sq km

• Vested forests 1,586.147 sq km

• Ecologically fragile lands 135.812 sq km

• Protected area 3,066.184 sq km

• TOTAL 11,524.149 sq km