A microchip was implanted in Paari, the Forest Department’s kumki, at the Chadivayal camp in Booluvampatti Range in Coimbatore district on Thursday.
The chips were also implanted in three captive elephants of the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris district on Monday. Senior Forest Department veterinarian N.S. Manoharan and MTR Veterinarian E. Vijayaraghavan implanted the chips in the elephants’ ears in both the camps.
This was part of elephant management measures. The microchips are used to identify the elephants by assigning a unique identification number to each of them.
Information about all the captive elephants in Tamil Nadu, both those in State and private custody, are stored in a database.
The details of each elephant can be accessed by entering its unique identification number.
The Chadivayal camp’s other inmate Sujoy already has the microchip implanted. There are 26 elephants in the MTR camp, of which the chip had already been implanted in 23.
The camp had 12 male and 14 female elephants with the oldest being the 73-year-old Bama and the youngest, the three-year-old Krishna.