Kolakolli or Chakkamadan (Jack fruit Freak) was an Indian rogue elephant active in the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary near Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...

. This elephant gained considerable notoriety among Indian media and was accused of murdering 12 people in and around Peppara over a span of seven to eight years. As a result, a hunt was launched to capture the tusker in 2006. Kolakolli was eventually captured and died while in capture.

Origin of Name

The elephant was initially nicknamed Chakkamadan (Chakka-Jack fruit) because of its fondness for riping jack fruits and used to regularly visit farms during jack fruit seasons. It was also said to have a body odour similar to smell of jack fruits. The rogue elephant later gained its new nickname Kolakolli that originated out of the malayalam words 'Kola' which means murder (also used as a superlative in a notorious sense) and 'Kolli', meaning murderer. It was popularised by the media giving it a demonised image.

Capture and Death

A hunt was launched for the elephant in 2006 after it gained notoreity as a dangerous murderer. The plan was to capture and tame Kolakolli. After several weeks of intense efforts the elephant was captured and sent for training. However it died a few days later reportedly due to cardiac arrest, while in captivity.

See also

• Black Diamond
  Black Diamond (elephant)
  -History:Weighing nine tons, he was believed to be the largest Indian elephant in captivity. A good worker but prone to fits of temper, he was generally kept chained to two calm female elephants during parades through the towns the circus visited. On October 12, 1929, while being unloaded in...
  
  
• Rogue elephant of Aberdare Forest
  Rogue elephant of Aberdare Forest
  The rogue elephant of Aberdare Forest was a bull African Bush Elephant which terrorized several villages in the vicinity of the Aberdare Range in British East Africa in the early 20th century, destroying crops and killing at least one person. The bull was reportedly so cunning, that it never struck...
  
  
• List of historical elephants