Coimbatore: With the High Court’s verdict on relocation of the 25-year-old Chinna Thambi yet to be out, rumours of the pachyderm entering musth has been doing the rounds. However, senior officials with the Tirupur Forest Division have denied it saying that the jumbo was reportedly in musth during November 2019.
Coimbatore: With the High Court’s verdict on relocation of the 25-year-old Chinna Thambi yet to be out, rumours of the pachyderm entering musth has been doing the rounds. However, senior officials with the Tirupur Forest Division have denied it saying that the jumbo was reportedly in musth during November 2019.
It has been nearly two weeks after Chinna Thambi had camped amidst sugarcane fields at Krishnapuram in Udumalaipet.
According to sources, who have been closely monitoring the elephant, Chinna Thambi was showing signs of entering musth – a periodic condition in bull elephants, characterised by highly aggressive behaviour, and accompanied by a large reproductive hormones. For tuskers above 14 years, it was expected of them to be in musth (mostly three months) once in a year. During this period, the elephants would move around on a larger area and mate with as many female jumbos as possible.
Denying these claims as rumours, senior officials with the Tirupur Forest Division said that the animal was not entering musth any sooner. As Chinna Thambi was reportedly in musth during November 2018, it would take a longer time for the cycle to return.
Explaining how things would get worse if the elephant was in musth, they said that handling Chinna Thambi in human settlements would become a tough task. In such scenario, the department would be forced to tranquilise and capture the animal considering the safety of people.
It may be recalled that the forest department had explained the High Court the necessity to bring Chinna Thambi under captivity as he was showing significant change in his behaviour.