Renovation of Kottur Rehabilitation Centre for Elephants: Work to start next month

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The work of the long-awaited Kottur Rehabilitation Centre for Elephants, an initiative by the Forest Department, will kick off next month. The project, funded by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), is aimed at providing elephants with world-class facilities including health care. According to the officers-in-charge, the rehabilitation facilities will be in par with international centres. "The first phase of the rehabilitation centre will use a budget of Rs 72 crore from the overall budget which is Rs 105 crore.

The approval was received at a meeting conducted on January 16. The construction work will begin next month," said Y M Shajikumar, Wildlife Warden, Thiruvananthapuram, and chief executive officer of Neyyar-Peppara Forest Development Agency. 

The new rehabilitation 
centre will provide elephants with a natural habitat with free enclosures, a wide elephant bathing area along with 'elephant viewing area' facilitating the public to watch them taking a shower, a speciality veterinary clinic where elephants will get special health care and routine check-ups, an elephant natural history museum unravelling its species, behaviour and much more. While the rehabilitation centre is being upgraded, awareness classes and training sessions will be provided for mahouts as there were reported cases of ill-treatment of wild elephants in captivity. 

"We are also planning to provide accommodation for mahouts inside the rehab area as it would help them spend more time with the elephants," said Shajikumar. He also informed that 'visitors area' is built in order to restrict visitors from touching or feeding elephants as they tend to get agitated. Construction of protection gates, fences, walkways is also on the list.

Organised waste management including recycling of elephant dung and construction of biogas plants sum up the first phase of the rehabilitation centre.While the first phase mainly focuses on building a zero-waste environment where elephants roam around freely in a natural enclosure, the forest officials also informed the need for an overall beautification in order to attract more visitors.

"We are planning to make the surroundings greener. Two ponds will also be built. Elephant cottages and the community hall will receive a facelift after renovation works," said Shajikumar. The State Housing Board will be in charge of supervision and monitoring of the Kottur Rehabilitation Project. 

inTERNATIONAL FACILITY
The new rehabilitation centre will provide elephants with a natural habitat with free enclosures
Wide elephant bathing area along with 'elephant viewing area' facilitating the public to watch them  taking a shower, a speciality veterinary clinic where elephants will get special health care and routine check-ups are also planned