Developmental works to ensure safety of the tourists are being carried at the Kozhikamuthi Elephant Camp in Topslip near Pollachi where 28 captive elephants are domesticated.
Coimbatore: The Kozhikamuthi Elephant Camp located in the Ulaandy range of Anamalai Tiger Reserve, near TopSlip, is home for 28 captive elephants including Chinna Thambi, the 'celebrity' tusker captured from Coimbatore's Thadagam Valley, last year.
Thousands of tourists visit Top Slip on weekends to visit the elephants camps -- Kozhikamuthi and Varakaliyaru at Topslip for sight seeing and enjoy elephant safaris. With Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the camps have seen no visitors, since March.
Making use of the time positively, the forest department have geared up to carry long-pending developmental works including replacing wooden log barriers to iron barriers, to ensure the safety of the tourists.
For many years, heavy wooden logs are used as barriers and placed in front of the elephants to stop them moving forward towards the tourists. In a bid to ensure safety of the tourists, those wooden logs are now being replaced with iron rods.
Work of laying concrete pillars to support the iron rods are carried out at a cost of Rs.5 lakhs. The work is expected to be completed, soon, officials told.
While 23 elephants are being maintained at the Kozhikamuthi camp, five other elephants are being maintained at the Varakaliyaru training camp.
Kumki elephants -- Kaleem, Venkatesh, Mariappan and Barani which are used to chase wild elephants that venture into agricultural lands are trained here at the camps, by experienced mahouts.
Thousands of tourists visit Top Slip on weekends to visit the elephants camps -- Kozhikamuthi and Varakaliyaru at Topslip for sight seeing and enjoy elephant safaris. With Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the camps have seen no visitors, since March.
Making use of the time positively, the forest department have geared up to carry long-pending developmental works including replacing wooden log barriers to iron barriers, to ensure the safety of the tourists.
For many years, heavy wooden logs are used as barriers and placed in front of the elephants to stop them moving forward towards the tourists. In a bid to ensure safety of the tourists, those wooden logs are now being replaced with iron rods.
Work of laying concrete pillars to support the iron rods are carried out at a cost of Rs.5 lakhs. The work is expected to be completed, soon, officials told.
While 23 elephants are being maintained at the Kozhikamuthi camp, five other elephants are being maintained at the Varakaliyaru training camp.
Kumki elephants -- Kaleem, Venkatesh, Mariappan and Barani which are used to chase wild elephants that venture into agricultural lands are trained here at the camps, by experienced mahouts.