The whole operation was part of the efforts to prevent the elephant from raiding provision stores for rice and jaggery, for which he had developed a rare taste due to reasons not fully understood yet.

Now released in the Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) of neighbouring Tamil Nadu with occasional forays into the adjacent Kanyakumari Wildlife Sanctuary (KWS), Arikomban's access to rice is almost nil.

If Tamil Nadu forest officials are to be believed, there are no ration shops or rice godowns close to the sanctuary and the reserve.

According to residents of Chinnakanal, Arikomban is a portmanteau of the Malayalam words Ari, meaning rice, and Komban, tusker. In Tamil Nadu, he became Arisi Komban, as Arisi is the Tamil word for rice.

The elephant is now constantly under the radar of forest departments of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. A radio collar attached to him often emits messages, confirming that he is in the deep interiors of the forest with access to plenty of fodder and water throughout the year.

But in Chinnakanal, which witnessed intense agitations in March and April demanding the capture and relocation of Arikomban – who is claimed to have killed 12 people – the mood has now changed: The overwhelming mood is in favour of bringing Arikomban back.

Both residents and forest officials now say there is actually no proof that Arikomban killed anyone.

They also say the elephant, despite a towering presence in the village for several years, was harmless except for the occasional raid on ration shops and kitchens.

V K Babu, a farmer-turned-trader in the locality, said he had assumed that Arikomban had created mischief and triggered terror in the locality but now realises that it was only because of rumours spread by the land and forest mafias active in the region. Owners of tourism resorts dotting the forest fringes added to those rumours, he said.

Babu, who is now leading a local movement to bring back Arikomban to his native forest, has spent ₹2 lakh to erect an eight-foot sculpture of the jumbo with the help of sculptor Malayil Binu.

The under-construction sculpture is a mark of remorse, Babu says.

S Thankaraj and V Kumar, residents of the tribal settlement named 301 Colony, where Arikomban often roamed, are now raising the same demand: Bring Arikomban back to his roots.

The tribals and nominal farmers of the region have organised agitations, including road blockades, in the last two weeks, demanding that the elephant be brought back.

"I never thought the protests would ensure such a huge participation. Those who were part of the violent agitations earlier demanding the relocation of Arikomban are now reformed, and they realise that they were just tools at the hands of mafias," said Idukki-based conservation activist M N Jayachandran, who recently led a protest demanding the return of Arikomban.

On June 16, the Madras High Court, however, dismissed a petition filed by Kochi native Rebecca Joseph seeking a directive to translocate Arikomban back to Chinnakanal.

The court observed that the elephant would be safe in his newly assigned territory where fodder and water are available.

The court order, however, has failed to diminish the spirit of hundreds of Arikomban fans in Kerala's northern city of Kannur who held a march on the same evening demanding the return of their favourite wild jumbo.

Cities including Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode have recently witnessed big rallies expressing similar sentiments. This is unprecedented in Kerala – a state that has often witnessed human-wildlife conflicts with people demanding that animals involved in human-animal conflict should be killed.

On social media, Arikomban has many fans who often engage in online arguments with other groups, which have different perceptions of the relocation and rehabilitation of the famous elephant.

Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and forest minister A K Saseendran have received numerous calls, video messages and memorandums in the last two weeks demanding the return of Arikomban to his native village.

In several videos in circulation, participants appear agitated – and are critical of the state government – because they feel their favourite tusker has been left to the mercy of Tamil Nadu.

According to popular Malayalam writer and social activist M N Karassery, no human or animal influenced the Malayali psyche like Arikomban in recent times.

Cutting across age, gender, caste and community barriers, Arikomban is now emerging as a beacon of conservation, coexistence and inclusive development.

A conservation outfit recently purchased four acres of land in Nilambur in the Malappuram district of Kerala to hand over to the forest department for elephants: They have named the initiative Arikomban.

For animal rights activist Sreedevi S Kartha, Arikomban has become an inseparable part of her existence. She filed a case to thwart the early attempts of the Kerala Forest Department (KFD) to capture and tame him as a 'Kumki' elephant, which are used in operations to capture crop-raiding elephants.

A division bench of the Kerala High Court, however, preferred the elephant’s translocation and an expert committee was constituted to identify a suitable habitat.

The committee suggested the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve (PTR), but the move was dropped after local MLA K Babu launched a campaign against the move.

After being released inside the PTR, the tusker moved into the Cumbum-Theni region of Tamil Nadu, from where it was captured and relocated again.

Kartha says the elephant is facing “false charges” of killing people and destruction, and has been wrongly relocated from its native jungle.

“Chinnakanal and adjacent Anayirangal were traditional elephant corridors, and only in 2003 did the then-A K Antony Government allocate land to people there. The elephant was moving only in its traditionally inherited corridor," said Sreedevi.

How did Arikomban develop his penchant for rice?

Celebrated forest veterinarian Arun Zachariah, who led the first operation to capture and relocate Arikomban, said it might be because of his “chance exposure” to rice while roaming close to the tourist resorts in and around Chinnakanal.

Staff at the resorts are infamous for attracting wildlife for the recreation of tourists by sprinkling rice and salt in the compounds.

Once the elephant got addicted to the taste of rice, resorts started feeling the heat, and they started inciting locals to demand the relocation of the elephant, Zakharia explained.

"We, the tribals, have no issue with Arikomban. He was part of our existence. We are also ready to share some of our rice rations with him. If the government is ready to provide us with alternative land, we are happy to move out to facilitate the safe dwelling of elephants like Arikomban," said P Lakshmi, a tribal resident of Chinnakanal.

According to environmental lawyer, Harish Vasudevan, who practises at the Kerala High Court, the tusker was a victim of “organised lies” and adverse propaganda by "settler lobbies" and the "land mafia."

"Across India, this is the first time that a wild elephant is evoking such an emotional outpouring as more people now know that he roamed around only in his territory and that it is humans who have encroached and occupied his home," adds Jayachandran, quoted earlier.

Meanwhile, groups who had attempted to mobilise public opinion against Arikomban are facing a backlash since his second capture.

VR Vinayaraj, a campaigner against crop-raiding elephants, was flooded with angry social media responses after he posted that Arikomban must be eliminated with "a single bullet" for the sake of the farming community.

His post was in the context of Paulraj, who was riding pillion on a two-wheeler in Cumbum and, on coming across Arikomban, fell, sustained injuries, and later died.

Across the state, anti-Arikomban social media opinion makers are now facing aggressive counter-attacks.

The backlash hasn’t spared KB Ganesh Kumar, an MLA of the ruling LDF in Kerala and owner of a captured elephant, who is facing cyberattacks for his adverse comments against Arikomban and the conservationists who support the elephant.

The activists have accused him of mistreating the captured elephant in his custody.

An observation made by the Kerala High Court in the case seemed to have pointed to the real cause behind the conflict: It said the real cause of the human-animal conflict is the Chinnakanal- Anayirangal area.

Realising that it was part of the reserve forests 23 years ago, the court asked the forest department to explain the rationale of allowing people to settle in an elephant habitat and putting them in danger.

According to forest department sources, who wished to remain anonymous, the Chinnakanal-Anayirangal area was a natural wild elephant habitat until 2002, when policymakers made a “grave mistake”.

The then government relocated 301 low-income families from the tribal community who were ousted from their landholdings by powerful settlers.

Instead of restoring their land, the government took the easy route and assigned reserve forests to the landless tribals. Their settlement later came to be known as the 301 Colony, mentioned earlier.

Incidentally, the then Divisional Forest Officer in Munnar, Prakriti Srivastava, had opposed the UDF government's move. She pointed out that the rehabilitation colony was in a traditional elephant corridor, connecting the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary with the PTR.

Only 41 people from 15 families now live in the area. The rest of the 301 tribal families have already moved out, unable to withstand the presence of many elephant herds.

The high court had enquired about the possibility of relocating the remaining tribal families to safer places. In reply, the forest department submitted an affidavit that relocating the remaining families would provide a lasting solution.

Elephants will inevitably frequent the corridor at Chinnakanal as it is the way to the Anayirangal Dam, which holds adequate water even in summer.

The area has witnessed many human-wildlife conflicts even after the capture of Arikomban.

Locals fear that if not Arikomban, it will be another tusker as more and more human settlements are coming up near forest areas. Other tuskers roam the area: Mottavalan, Chakkakomban, and Padayappa. The settlers claim that they, too, are creating a menace in the region.

A demand will likely be raised to similarly capture and relocate other elephants as well. It has been alleged that barring Padayappa, the three other elephants had killed 15 people.

Meanwhile, official data suggest habitat destruction is the root cause of the prevailing elephant attacks in the region. Private individuals obtained land rights by fudging documents in several elephant corridors.

At least 38 elephants are trapped in the area — cut off from the rest of the forests — because of fragmentation, and they often raid crops due to food scarcity, forest officials said.

Fences erected by estate owners are also worsening the situation in areas like Pondimala, Chinnakanal, Munnar, Chinar, Sinkukandam, Adukidannapara, Udumbanchola, Chellarkovil Mettu, and Mathikettan.

Earlier, forest patches in these areas had direct links with the PTR and elephants used to move freely through the path. With new fences coming up, the freeways for elephants are no longer available.