“Be fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.”
Kozhikode-based veterinary surgeon Dr Arun Zachariah means what he says. The wildlife lover wasn’t bragging while safely ensconced in his armchair but gracefully referring to the fact that he has risked his life several times while making daring bids to rescue more than a hundred wild elephants, 60 leopards, 20 tigers, and a couple of panthers! His incredible presence of mind had once helped him to get away safely from under the feet of a charging elephant, a tusker that had killed two men at Aralam, Kannur. The brave doctor is one among the very few people who have survived one-on-one tiger attacks without major injuries. The Kerala forest department sends a vehicle for Dr Zachariah the minute it is alarmed of a wild animal raid on human settlements. The 47-year-old, with his sheer expertise in ‘free-ranging wildlife medicine,’ one of the least explored areas in animal sciences, often conquers the target animal in a deliberate conflict and proceed to cure its diseases. The newage Jim Corbett rescues wild animals rather than kill like the famed hunter of the yore.
Dr Zachariah started his profession as an assistant veterinary officer at Wayanad’s Muthanga. His first conflict with a wild animal happened within days of his joining. “A young bull elephant had one of his forelimbs fractured in an unsupervised gunshot. I had zero experience in handling old Danish guns available back then. With my limited knowledge gained from textbooks, I ventured out to tranquilise him, which I successfully did in the very first go. I camped in the forest for about 10 days to cure the young champ. Once his fractured leg looked no more swollen, I released him from the jolts. He tried to stand up on his own, but a loud crackling sound was what I heard and I was disappointed to see the elephant collapse in front of me,” he recalled.
As no authentic literature is available, medics like Dr Zachariah have to rely on observation and experience “I learned that elephants exert 70% of their body weight on their forearms and it is nearly impossible for them to survive with one of them injured. Free-ranging wildlife medicine is way too challenging and risky when compared to zoo medicine where you get a confined medical environment and animal’s previous medical history,” he explained.
The surgeon also recalled another risky venture that he had made back in 2013. Dr Zachariah was called for "operation cast" at Naykkatti, Wayanad. “Only after reaching the destination did I realise the seriousness of my task. I was supposed to capture a straying tiger, a massive cat, weighing about 100 kg, which had been disturbing human settlements. When it is the healthiest tuskers which raid plantations and crops, it is the weakest of tigers which venture out to forest’s peripheries for preys. They would be outcasts, mostly because of injuries or old age. This fierce cat too was severely injured,” he remembered. “The moment it spotted us, it leapt upon us. While others managed to disappear into the crowd of onlookers, the tiger pushed me down, grabbed my chest and growled in anguish. Somehow I managed to push my gun deep into its mouth and conquered the animal with a strong-dosed anaesthesia in a God-knows-how defence,” he narrated with fear still in his eyes.
Passion for wildlife
After completing his primary education from a local government school at Kozhikode’s Mukkam, a young Zachariah joined the College of Forestry of the Kerala Agricultural University for his higher studies. He completed his higher education from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2007, a decade after starting his career.
Wildlife has been his sole passion right from his childhood, which was shared and nurtured by his elder brother Dr Anil Zachariah, who is also a noted wildlife physician. The wildlife veterinarian's family has more members of the profession. His wife, brother and brother’s wife are all veterinary doctors, all drawn to wildlife and forest.
Dr Zachariah says that tranquilising or shooting down ill wild animals is just the primary phase in wildlife medicine. “People are fascinated by the adventure or the sports value of shooting rather than the real, challenging process of treatment that lies ahead. I am not formally trained in shooting and I don’t shoot for the pleasure of hunting, but I do it for the collective good of wild and human life. I attempt to save each animal I capture though many have failed to survive,” he regretted. He recalled with immense pain the fate of a leopard cub which died on his operation table because of a drug overdose. “In wildlife medicine, we never get the medical history of the animal we are treating. Who knows whether it is allergic to drugs or it is under the minimum-age criterion to take a drug! It is all a play of assumptions and presumptions. The sight of that beautiful leopard cub losing its life will never disappear from my eyes,” he bemoaned.
Tracking project
Man-animal conflicts are common across Kerala. Dr Zachariah has spearheaded Kerala forest department’s path-breaking radio-collar project, which aims at attaching electronic tracking system to rogue animals that pose trouble in human settlements. The first radio-collared elephant in the state is an adult tusker which had run amok among colonies in Kozhikode’s Bathery. Dr Zachariah had conquered it after a face-to face conflict. Later, he attached radio collars to panthers, tigers and leopards which had ventured out into human settlements. “I would never forget the panther of Muthanga which seemed active several minutes after it was shot with tranquilising drugs. I had to risk my life by going close to it to ensure that it has been tranquilised,” he said.
The forest departments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka too seek Dr Zachariah's services whenever wild animals attack human settlements over there.
Hunt for virus
If you think that this bold vet acts only in the wild, you are wrong! Dr Zachariah was one among the expert committee constituted to capture bats from wells and tall trees at Kozhikode, when Nipah virus raised its head a couple of months back. He is now a member of the multidisciplinary committee constituted by the government to locate the exact source of virus outbreak. “Disease ecology is one area I am very much curious about. I study the pattern of diseases, virus, bacteria and germs found on wild animals and formulate hypotheses regarding their source, propagation and ecology,” he said.
Dr Zachariah headed the team which discovered tuberculosis among wild elephants and how its virus were transferred to them from humans. He was also the one who spotted EHV (Equine Herpes Virus) disease among animals in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.
The wonder-vet won't rest on his laurels. He now looks forward to prepare some expert literature on free-ranging wildlife medicine.
Dr Zachariah is the chief veterinary officer at Wayanad at present.
