Nagpur: Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve’s (TATR) 24-year-old Gajraj, which is in its musth and showed aggressive behaviour, has been shifted with its family to the wilderness from the usually bustling camp at Mohurli.
Musth is a period in which male elephants become aggressive due to high testosterone levels. The Gajraj family includes Laxmi (22), Sushila (18), Vishwa (2) and six-month-old Bahubali. All got a new home in Botezari, a relocated village in the Kolsa range with meadows, grasslands and water bodies.
Last year when Gajraj was in its musth, it had killed its caretaker Janikram Masram on November 17. Gajraj ran through the Mohurli village, creating a scare. The elephant did not allow anyone near the body for two hours and had to be tranquillized and chained after a six-hour operation.
In October 2018, Gajraj, who was deployed to capture problem tigress Avni, had trampled a woman near Pandharkawda.
“Though both the cases were mere accidents, our fears were mounting as the tusker, which is in its musth again, could have posed risks in Mohurli. Hence, as a precautionary step we shifted the entire family to the wilderness,” says TATR field director Jitendra Ramgaokar.
The story of Gajraj’s happiness centres around Thane’s Anand Shinde, who runs the NGO Trunk Call — The Wildlife Foundation, and is the man who calmed down the aggressive tusker simply by humane behaviour.
After last year’s tragedy, Shinde had been to Mohurli in January 2020 and observes Gajraj’s behaviour for a month. “It had tried to push me and the wildlife vet too. One of the reasons why the tusker was unhappy was that it was not getting to walk the required 20km a day.”
With Gajraj's musth period nearing this November, Shinde was again summoned for the family’s shifting to Botezari. He said the elephant looked aggressive but was not that harmful. “I reached Mohurli on November 16, and took female elephants and babies for a walk as a part of the strategy,” says Shinde.
A day before shifting, the forest team reviewed the path between Mohurli-Botezari from where the elephant family would move, take bath and mud bath, and where babies would have milk.
“On November 19, we started at 6.30am and as planned, the elephants chose Andhari river to bathe and Ambeutar water body for a mud bath. The family enjoyed the forest and ate lots of bamboo and grass during the 18km walk,” says Shinde.
While Shinde led from the front, field director Ramgaonkar, deputy director (core) Nandkishore Kale and ACF Ravindra Kulkarni were also among those who walked for six hours to reach Botezari at 12.30pm.
On the secret behind calming down Gajraj, Shinde says, “Elephants are extremely intelligent, and they judge you by the throw of words. You have to be humane with them. The family seems to be settled in serene Botezari as it did not return in the last six days.”
Kale said, “Botezari was the ideal choice as there is no village within 8km distance from the new campsite. In Mohurli there was a lot of movement of vehicles and human presence too, causing commotion. The mahouts will have to train the tuskers to show them the boundaries and restrict them from crossing that limit.”