To express his affection for Arikompan, the wild elephant that was translocated from Chinnakanal recently, a vendor in Idukki has installed an eight-foot-tall cement statue of the animal near his shop at Thallakkanam, near Kanjikuzhi. Vettikkattu Babu, a cacao vendor, has installed the statue in solidarity with the elephant that lost its original habitat.
“While I was cultivating ginger at 301 Colony, near BL Ram, at Chinnakanal in 2015, I saw Arikompan for the first time. Over time, I became attached to the animal. Though I stopped ginger farming after a sharp fall in the crop price, I continued to follow him closely through updates from local people,” he said.
Mr. Babu said the idea to make a statue of Arikompan occurred to him when the State government decided to shift the animal to the elephant camp at Kodanad. “The statue, which cost about ₹2 lakh, was constructed over two months,” said Mr. Babu. People have been flocking the area to take selfies with the statue sculpted by Punnayar resident Binu. In May, a tea shop named ‘Arikompan Friends’ was set up at Gandhi Nagar, near Poopara, in the district by a group of youths in support of the elephant.
