The deserted streets of Kerala’s hill station Munnar, typically filled with tourists and residents, witnessed a different kind of friendly visitor on Wednesday. As people are confined to their homes during the lockdown, Padayappa, a popular elephant known for being non-threatening, took a stroll around the town, wandering on roads devoid of human activity. 

And he’s not the first four-legged creature to take advantage of the lockdown, according to environmentalists and forest department officials who’ve noticed the new visitors in and around Munnar. On Saturday, a herd of wild elephants roamed around inside the High Range Club near Munnar. And earlier this week, Padayappa made another appearance and even blocked a police vehicle. 

"After the lockdown, wild elephants were sighted in various parts of the Munnar town and also sighted in areas where humans live. In the last several days, wild elephants have entered Munnar town, Periyavara and Colony areas. The star tusker Padayappa also roamed in and around the town," said Prasad Ambattu, a journalist and a resident of Munnar.

Wild elephants roam at the High Range Club near Munnar.

"Since there are no vehicles or human movement on the roads, it is attracting wild animals,” he said. 

Padayappa is a celebrity wild elephant in Munnar and has a large number of fans. The elephant can be easily spotted because of his limp due to an injury on his leg and his unusually long tusks. He is named after the character in the famed 1999 Rajinikanth film of the same name. The elephant is even said to have his own imitation of the film’s famous line — "En vazhi thani vazhi" (my way is a distinct way). 

Environmentalist and animal welfare board member M N Jayachandran said, "Earlier, Munnar was the habitat of wild animals. After the lockdown, they have temporarily returned to their previous habitat. The tusker Padyappa is also enjoying the new situation and is freeling moving in and around Munnar. The tusker had earlier gone missing from Munnar. After a long gap, he returned back to Rajamala on Thiruvonam day of 2017."

The celebrity elephant Padayappa in Munnar town on Wednesday.

Jayachandran continues, “The man-animal conflict issues have largely reduced following the lockdown. The new trend shows that human intervention and habitat destruction are the reasons behind the man-animal conflict."

This is not Padayappa’s first time in the news. Last year, he attended a football match, which he disrupted, sending players scrambling in different directions when they saw him coming towards the grounds. He stayed on the football field for a while, before going back to the first. In 2015, he found and ate a bag of carrots hidden under a bridge by a vendor. 

In 2001, then Chief Minister A K Antony was blocked by the elephant on the road, delaying his journey on his return after launching a project.