Udhagamandalam: Three tuskers from Kerala have been brought to the Theppakadu elephant camp at Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) in the Nilgiris for a three-month training, which commenced on Friday.
The three elephants were captured from different forest areas of the neighbouring state and reared in the Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary. They would be trained to become kumkis to tackle man-animal conflict in Kerala. The tuskers, identified as Neelakandan, 24, Suriyan, 20 and Surendran, 22, arrived at the Theppakadu elephant camp on Thursday evening.
They were accompanied by mahouts (two for each elephants) a veterinarian and a Kerala forest official.
“All the three are tamed elephants, yet they seem to be very rough. They have been brought here to be trained to become kumkis,” said Pushpakaran, deputy director, MTR buffer zone. Training an elephant to become a kumki was a difficult task, he added.
A fully trained kumki elephant would obey every order of the mahout, right from taking bath to having food to untying a chain to chasing away a wild elephant into the forest to lifting a rogue elephant onto a vehicle.
“Here in Theppakadu, the mahouts do not use any nail or ‘ankush’ to train the jumbos as in Kerala. It is entirely a different method as the mahouts create a bondage with the animals, which is not practiced in Kerala,” Pushpakaran said.
The mahouts, veterinarian and the forest official from Kerala would stay back at the Theppakadu elephant camp during the training period, which would conclude on September 12, said N Rajendran, Theppakadu forest range officer. “The mahouts will also be trained to tackle the elephants,” the official added.
On the inaugural day of the training programme, Shenbagapriya, deputy director, MTR core zone, and Pushpakaran, among other forest range officers, were present at the camp.