Pollachi : After more than 16 days, Chinnathambi, the popular tusker who was the talk of the town all over the State for more than two weeks, returned to his release area Varagaliyar in Anamalai Tiger Reserve, but only to be shut inside a Kraal and taken forever into captivity.
Pollachi : After more than 16 days, Chinnathambi, the popular tusker who was the talk of the town all over the State for more than two weeks, returned to his release area Varagaliyar in Anamalai Tiger Reserve, but only to be shut inside a Kraal and taken forever into captivity.
After being administered the first doze of tranquilizers (combination of Ketamine and Xylazine, 8 ml) around 9.30 am on Friday at Kannadiputhur in Udumalaipet, it took the forest department team a little more than 16 hours to transport the animal to Varagaliyar and shut him inside the Kraal at 1.40 am today.
The Kraal was made ready well in advance to host the tusker for the training process. Once Chinnathambi reached the campsite at 12.15 am, he was made to interact with two female camp elephants Vijayalakshmi and Sivakami from the right side of the truck as a distraction to allow Forest Veterinary Officer Dr. Kalaivanan to administer a mild sedation.
Chinnathambi had broken one of the logs inside the special transport vehicle brought from Wayanad in which he was taken to Varagaliyar. In the process of breaking the log, he had also sustained a scratch injury on the inner part of the trunk a little above the upper lip.
Hence, an additional dose was administered. The tusker was then freed from ropes that were holding him onto the vehicle. However, the ropes on the legs and neck were tightly held by forest staff as they guided the animal gently into the Kraal.
With gentle nudges from Kaleem and with the help of captive elephants Sivakami and Vijayalakshmi, Chinnathambi finally moved inside the Kraal and the Kraal was immediately closed.
The animal was then administered with 50 ml each of B-complex and antibiotics and was forever taken into captivity.
A mahout and a Kaavadi (subordinate mahout) have been posted to take care of Chinnathambi and a special team had been posted to monitor the animal throughout on shift basis.
V. Ganeshan, Field Director of Anamalai Tiger Reserve said that special care would be given to Chinnathambi during the training process and beyond.
“Depending upon how the animal responds to our training, he could be taken out of the Kraal between 45 days to two months,” he said.
Notably, Chinnathambi was released in the same area as a wild elephant on January 26 after being captured from Thadagam the precious day. However, he has returned to the same spot as a captive elephant as his condition of crop raiding was termed irrevocable by experts.