Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi on Sunday visited his Lok Sabha constituency and met the families of the two victims of the recent wild elephant attacks in this high-range district and consoled their family members.

On Saturday night, Gandhi arrived in the neighbouring Kannur district after abandoning his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra in Varanasi due to intense protests by locals, who were seeking solutions to the human-animal conflicts in his constituency. He then travelled by road to Wayanad, accompanied by AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal and other local leaders.

During his visit, Gandhi spent over 20 minutes at the house of Aji (42), who was trampled to death by a radio-collared elephant in the Mananthavady area of Wayanad district. This incident triggered massive protests also last week.

Subsequently, he paid a visit to Paul’s residence, an eco-tourism guide from the forest department who tragically lost his life to a wild tusker near Kuruva island on Friday, and spent some time there. Additionally, the MP is anticipated to pay a visit to the house of Prajeesh, who tragically lost his life in a tiger attack.

KC Venugopal, a member of the Congress Working Committee, accompanied Gandhi. After the meeting, the bereaved families spoke to news reporters and expressed their concerns about the ineffectual response of the Forest Department to wild animal threats, as well as the lack of facilities for specialised care in State-funded hospitals in the district.

Before his departure to Allahabad, Gandhi will join district officials for an assessment and review meeting at the PWD rest house in Kalpetta.

There have been frequent reports of attacks on both livestock and humans in Wayanad recently. On Saturday, there was a violent escalation during the hartal organised by political parties to protest the rise in wild animal attacks.

Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan staged a sit-in protest on the roadside in Kollam district as Student Federation of India (SFI) members waved black flags at him. The student wings belong to the ruling party CPI(M).

The Kerala Governor has accused the police of their failure to control the protesters and failing to stop them from waving black flags at his convoy.

In a video, he could be seen angry at law enforcement saying he would not leave the place. Police are giving them protection, he accused police present at the spot as SFI activists held a protest against him.

The Governor further questioned the police for their mismanagement and said if the police itself is breaking the law, who will uphold the law, he asked.

Later, police registered a case against 13 SFI workers under Section 143 unlawful assembly, Section 144 says the power to issue an order in urgent cases of nuisance or apprehended danger, Section 147 punishment for rioting, Section 353 assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, Section 124 assaulting Governor of Indian Penal Code.

The SFI workers claimed that the Governor called them bloody criminals and stated that the student body is unwilling to make any compromises.

An employee of SFI alleged that individuals who were recommended by K Surendran from the BJP office were appointed to the senate without any qualifications. As a result, SFI has been organizing state-wide protests against the governor for several months now. Today’s protest was also a part of those ongoing protests.

The governor allegedly called the protestors bloody criminals, which has further triggered SFI. In response, they have decided to demonstrate their power of protest by organizing rallies and marches across the state. SFI wants to send a message that they are not willing to compromise on their demands.

There has been a conflict between the Pinarayi Vijayan government and Arif Khan. SFI activists have been protesting against the Kerala Governor, accusing him of promoting BJP-RSS nominees to the senate of various universities in Kerala using his authority as the Chancellor of universities in the state.

Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said recently that the state will carry out a seroprevalence study on the ongoing Nipah virus outbreaks because even the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has been unable to offer a conclusive reason for the outbreaks.

According to Vijayan, even the ICMR is unable to explain why the illness keeps reoccurring in Kozhikode. The state has made the decision to carry out a seroprevalence investigation in this regard. A thorough proposal for this has been requested from the health department.

Bat samples, which are the main reservoirs of the Nipah virus, will continue to be gathered and examined as part of the ongoing investigation, he said. Both the Institute of Advanced Virology Lab in Thonnakkal and the microbiology lab at Kozhikode Medical College will be used for the testing.

Speaking on the state’s efforts to track Nipah infections, the chief minister of Kerala stated that 304 samples had been taken from 994 individuals who were being monitored.

Vijayan claimed that even though the current outbreak is under control, the threat posed by the contagious disease still exists.

The possible occurrence of a second wave was also acknowledged by him, who said, health experts are of the opinion that the possibility of a second wave is very remote but cannot be completely ruled out.

The Chief Minister credited early diagnosis for the state health system’s success in halting the deadly virus’s spread. He did, though, voice his concern over the ambiguity surrounding the disease’s reappearance in Kozhikode.

Additionally, the chief minister promised that the government would pay for patients’ medical bills at private facilities. There are currently 1,286 people on the contact list, 276 of whom fall within the high-risk group. 122 of them are relatives and family members of the sick. Six people who tested positive out of 304 have results, bringing the total to 267.

In 2018 and 2021, the Kozhikode district was the site of reports of nipah cases.