Four elephants, including a 3-year-old calf that was brought to the Theppakadu Elephant Camp when he was just 10-months old, are undergoing kumki training from Wednesday.
Officials from the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve said that three of the four elephants - Krishna, Giri and Srinivas - were between 7 and 16 years of age, while Raghu, the calf, was only 3. The elephants were being trained by their mahouts using simple commands during the first few weeks, after which more advanced commands used during kumki operations would be taught to them, officials said.
The training is significant as the camp elephants, which are currently used for kumki operations - Mudumalai, Wasim, Vijay and Sujay, are quickly nearing their retirement age, and forest officials want the younger elephants at the camp to begin taking over from their counterparts.
Raghu, which was nursed back to health after it arrived, emaciated and injured from Denkanikottai where it was found abandoned, would also be given basic training, the officials said, adding that this was one of the first times that it was in close proximity to all the other captive elephants at the Theppakadu Elephant Camp. The training would be imparted for an hour a day, and could extend for up to two to three months, the officials said.
