Coimbatore: The Thadagam Valley! A place once made famous by its corn and now the infamous sand mining and its tall smoky chimneys of the brick kiln chambers.
The story of Coimbatore and its elephants throws up interesting twists and turns in every corner, and every single one of them have been equally regaling to the Science Community and general public. So is the case of the elephant and chicken curry.
Coimbatore: The Thadagam Valley! A place once made famous by its corn and now the infamous sand mining and its tall smoky chimneys of the brick kiln chambers.
The dusty and rusty part of the Coimbatore District is well known for its trysts with the worlds’ largest land mammal, the elephant. The rendezvous is so famous that it had given birth to stories of Chinnathambis and Vinayagans and Periyathambis.
Each story is so unique, not only because of the habitual crop raiding elephants that rule the valley, but also the savage appetite of these elephants. Not only the love for corn, maize, rice and other crops in the farm, but also the kitchen delicacies seemed to have caught their taste buds. Much to the surprise of the human mind that has framed the pachyderm a strict herbivore, a recent incident that occurred in Chinnathadagam, 15 kms away from the city, has taken everyone by surprise.
A male wild elephant calf has broken into one of the houses of the brick kiln labourers and has feasted upon more than two kgs of chicken curry, along with the cooked rice that was nearby. The animal had literally gulped the curry along with the meat and bones leaving the beholders in shellshock as his mother watched closely from outside the house.
Thought this may seem as a shock, this is not the first time that an elephant has been observed eating meat. In 2016, elephants have been caught on camera eating the nests of weaver birds in Kenya and it held live chicks. The chicks were swallowed inside by the animal along with the nest, revealing a different world of African elephants. However, Asian elephants have not been caught doing such acts. Or, have they?
In 2011, Animal Planet came up with a documentary on a wild elephant that went on a rampage in the town of Siliguri in North Eastern India, killing 17 people. When the female elephant was killed, post mortem revealed shocking facts as the animal’s stomach contained human body parts. Though it is highly uncommon for elephants to eat humans, pinning the actions of the animal as a result of human violence and emotional trauma on the pachyderm, elephants eating human food is not uncommon.
“They are doing this very regularly these days breaking into the kitchen in search of rice and dhal, and it is common for them to taste even cooked food at times. But the chicken was a shock for all of us,” said a villager who was witnessing the scene.
Not just chicken curry, it was beef briyani once and this time it was Anaikatti. A room was broken into and a packet of the briyani was taken out by a tusker and eaten fully.
“We see such things happen time and time again. Once people threw bondas and bajjis to Chinnathambi who was caught from Thadagam and he ate them. They also fed him groundnut candy and honey candy,” said M. Abraham, a wildlife photographer from Coimbatore.
Claiming that meat eating could have been purely accidental, Elephant Biologist M. Ananda Kumar from the Nature Conservation Foundation in Valparai, said that meat could give the animal a hard time digesting considering the biology of the creature.
“I have not witnessed myself in places where we work and have no idea about this. But I did hear about it from others. The digestive system of a herbivore may not cope up with meat and it may create terrible discomfort for them,” said the biologist who is working on the elephants of Valparai for two decades.
He however added that the briyani scenario could have been because of elephant’s liking for rice. The meat could not have been swallowed,” said the scientist.
Tarsh Thekaekara, Founder of the Shola Trust from Gudalur said that it was common for herbivores to eat meat at times to gain salt. “Basically the vegetarian and non-vegetarian segregation is a very human thing, and it often differs in the animal kingdom. Herbivores eat mostly plants, but opportunistically if they come across meat they will eat. There are well documented incidents of deer feeding on birds, nests and even dead animal carcass, and we cannot rule out the possibility. And it is vice versa in the case of carnivores. In this particular case, it could be because of the salt content and it is not a big surprise,” he informed.
Coimbatore: The Thadagam Valley! A place once made famous by its corn and now the infamous sand mining and its tall smoky chimneys of the brick kiln chambers.
The dusty and rusty part of the Coimbatore District is well known for its trysts with the worlds’ largest land mammal, the elephant. The rendezvous is so famous that it had given birth to stories of Chinnathambis and Vinayagans and Periyathambis.
Each story is so unique, not only because of the habitual crop raiding elephants that rule the valley, but also the savage appetite of these elephants. Not only the love for corn, maize, rice and other crops in the farm, but also the kitchen delicacies seemed to have caught their taste buds. Much to the surprise of the human mind that has framed the pachyderm a strict herbivore, a recent incident that occurred in Chinnathadagam, 15 kms away from the city, has taken everyone by surprise.
A male wild elephant calf has broken into one of the houses of the brick kiln labourers and has feasted upon more than two kgs of chicken curry, along with the cooked rice that was nearby. The animal had literally gulped the curry along with the meat and bones leaving the beholders in shellshock as his mother watched closely from outside the house.
Thought this may seem as a shock, this is not the first time that an elephant has been observed eating meat. In 2016, elephants have been caught on camera eating the nests of weaver birds in Kenya and it held live chicks. The chicks were swallowed inside by the animal along with the nest, revealing a different world of African elephants. However, Asian elephants have not been caught doing such acts. Or, have they?
In 2011, Animal Planet came up with a documentary on a wild elephant that went on a rampage in the town of Siliguri in North Eastern India, killing 17 people. When the female elephant was killed, post mortem revealed shocking facts as the animal’s stomach contained human body parts. Though it is highly uncommon for elephants to eat humans, pinning the actions of the animal as a result of human violence and emotional trauma on the pachyderm, elephants eating human food is not uncommon.
“They are doing this very regularly these days breaking into the kitchen in search of rice and dhal, and it is common for them to taste even cooked food at times. But the chicken was a shock for all of us,” said a villager who was witnessing the scene.
Not just chicken curry, it was beef briyani once and this time it was Anaikatti. A room was broken into and a packet of the briyani was taken out by a tusker and eaten fully.
“We see such things happen time and time again. Once people threw bondas and bajjis to Chinnathambi who was caught from Thadagam and he ate them. They also fed him groundnut candy and honey candy,” said M. Abraham, a wildlife photographer from Coimbatore.
Claiming that meat eating could have been purely accidental, Elephant Biologist M. Ananda Kumar from the Nature Conservation Foundation in Valparai, said that meat could give the animal a hard time digesting considering the biology of the creature.
“I have not witnessed myself in places where we work and have no idea about this. But I did hear about it from others. The digestive system of a herbivore may not cope up with meat and it may create terrible discomfort for them,” said the biologist who is working on the elephants of Valparai for two decades.
He however added that the briyani scenario could have been because of elephant’s liking for rice. The meat could not have been swallowed,” said the scientist.
Tarsh Thekaekara, Founder of the Shola Trust from Gudalur said that it was common for herbivores to eat meat at times to gain salt. “Basically the vegetarian and non-vegetarian segregation is a very human thing, and it often differs in the animal kingdom. Herbivores eat mostly plants, but opportunistically if they come across meat they will eat. There are well documented incidents of deer feeding on birds, nests and even dead animal carcass, and we cannot rule out the possibility. And it is vice versa in the case of carnivores. In this particular case, it could be because of the salt content and it is not a big surprise,” he informed.