The sprawling nine-acre site at Thekampatti, along the banks of the Bhavani river near Mettuppalayam, witnessed a re-union of jumbos on Thursday morning. Thirty one mutt and temple elephants were brought for the 48-day long rejuvenation camp organised by the State. The camp will go on till February 4.
This is the sixth rejuvenation camp sponsored by the State at an outlay of Rs 1.53 crore. The first four were held at Mudumalai in the Nilgiris. The last and this year’s camp are being held Thekkampatti near Mettuppalayam in the foot hills of the Nilgiris. The government shifted the camp from Mudumalai to Mettuppalayam, since last year to avoid transporting the pachyderms on an uphill travel on the ghat road.
Originally, the Government had listed as many as 43 elephants from temple and mutts for participation in the elephant rejuvenation camp. Thirty one made it to the camp on Wednesday night. The remaining 12 elephants are not participating for various reasons such as refusal to board the truck, age/health condition. Some of the elephants in “masth condition” (an aggressive behaviour born out of urge for biological ventilation) are not participating in the camp.
The rejuvenation camp this year had another addition, wherein 18 camp elephants of the Forest Department (11 of the 27 elephants) from the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) and (seven of the 21 elephants) from Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) were accommodated in a nearly-eight acre area across the river Bhavani.
Those ailing and aged have been exempted. The remaining elephants are on guard duty for the wild elephants rescued from Thiruvannamalai in the “Operation Maalai”. Of the six rescued elephants, three each are housed at ATR and MTR. Arrangements at the site where the camp elephants are camping was supervised by Field Director of Anamalai Tiger Reserve Rajiv K. Srivastava, Conservator of Forests V.T. Kandasamy and District Forest Officer M. Senthilkumar.
Officers are being posted on turn duty to manage the camp round-the-clock.
The camp site has been fortified with solar fencing to prevent wild elephants from entering the site. Six watch towers monitor the movement of wild elephants in the peripheral areas. Power back up has been provided in the area. Shelter for mahouts and cavadis, kitchen for preparing food for pachyderms and the handlers, and moats have been created in the river as well.
Two more elephants — Lakshmi from the Manakula Vinayakar Temple, Puducherry, and Fathima Beevi from Nagore Dargah (granted permission for participation by the Chief Minister) were on their way and are expected to reach Mettuppalayam by Thursday night.
Officials and visitors were thrilled to hear from the mahouts that Lakhmi — an elephant from Tiruchi — obeys only commands in Hindi. Lakshmi from Irattai Tirupati temple in Tuticorin and Gandhimathi from Tirunelveli enthralled the visitors by playing a mouth-organ. There was another elephant that loved to play foot ball, while another one started dancing whenever musical instruments are played.
Kumaran from Tiruchendur and Booma from Oppilippan temple were so friendly that the handlers had a tough time separating them.
On Thursday, the jumbos had a walk along the one-km long walking track and then a refreshing bath in river Bhavani and were then decked up even as the priests performed ganapathy homam and poojas. The elephants were lined up and the Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) P. Chendur Pandian and Minister for Forests M.S.M. Anandan, Secretary to Government for Culture, Tourism and HR &CE R. Kannan, Mettuppalayam MLA O.K. Chinnaraj along with District Collector Archana Patnaik and Superintendent of Police M. Sudhakar fed the jumbos with fruits.
Commissioner for HR & CE P. Dhanapal said that on arrival, the health condition of the elephants have been assessed, depending on their age, height and weight various factors are being decided. For example, the distance for walking is prescribed for each elephant and diet chart is based on the age, weight and height of the elephant.
The diet included coconut leaves, banyan leaves, sugarcane, palm leaves besides rice, ragi, horse gram and green grams. Veterinarian prescription for the elephants included Chayavanrpash, Ashtachoornam, Vitamin mixtures, mineral mixtures and boosters to tone up the health and liver, pointed out N.S. Manoharan, Forest Veterinarian.
Mr. Dhanapal said public will be allowed to visit the camp to see the pachyderms in close quarters. From Friday, timings for the visitors will be from 10.00 a.m. to 12 noon and from 3 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. on all days and on Saturdays and Sundays visitors could come in from 8.30 a.m.
