The Forest department has registered a case against four youths after visuals of them provoking a wild tusker, locally called Padayappa, to take photos and videos of the tusker at Chokkanad, near Munnar, on Tuesday night went viral.
According to Forest department officials, a group of youths traveling in a vehicle provoked the animal around 11 p.m. on Tuesday at the Vattakkad division on Chokkanad estate under the Kanan Devan Hills Plantations (KDHP).
The video shows the tusker standing near the roadside and the youths trying to reach near the tusker in a vehicle to take close photos and videos. Plantation workers from nearby layams (cluster homes) who noticed the action of the youths directed them not to provoke the animal. Despite repeated intervention by the residents, the youths didn’t pay heed.
