Tamil Nadu: After three-day trek, foresters reunite elephant calf with herd

COIMBATORE: Accompanying a three-week-old elephant calf rescued from flood waters in the Segur reserve forest, more than a dozen foresters and helpers roamed the woods for three days and nights before reuniting the little one with its herd after two herds rejected it.
While the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR) forest team trekked, feeding the calf and playing with it, drones looked out for elephant herds. Two of the herds detected by the drones refused to take the calf in. The happy reunion happened on the third attempt on Wednesday. On Thursday, drone shots showed the calf toddling behind its mother.

D Venkatesh, MTR field director, told TOI that on Wednesday they got word that there was an elephant herd in the Congress Mattam area. The foresters took the calf there and spotted a female elephant that was lactating, but had no calf. They smeared mud and dung on the calf to camouflage the smell of humans and left it at the spot.
The female elephant moved to a higher place but kept looking at the calf. As the calf cried out and moved forward, a young male elephant chased away the watching foresters. It then escorted the baby towards the herd. "We went to the same place on Thursday morning and used a drone to track the elephants. The calf was seen with other elephants in the herd," said Venkatesh.
The foresters had found the calf on Monday, rescuing it from the flooded Segur river in the Mavanur area. The same evening, a female elephant was spotted on the opposite bank of Segur.
The foresters thought it was the mother and released the calf towards it. The elephant trumpeted on seeing the calf, but it squealed and ran away. As night had fallen, they could not see what happened after that.
The next morning (August 30), six teams fanned out to check on the calf. Around 9am, one of the groups spotted the calf lying down by itself on the river bank. When the foresters approached, the calf came running to them.
The foresters then sent up two drones to look for elephants in the area. Two elephants, a female and a male, were spotted and the calf was taken near them. The calf called out but the female elephant did not respond or approach it. "So we brought the baby elephant to the Vazhai Thottam check-post area," said Venkatesh.
Meanwhile, a mahout named Bomman, who is an expert in caring for young elephants at the Theppakadu camp, was called to feed the calf. It was first given glucose and coconut water on the advice of the veterinarian. Around 2pm on the third day (Wednesday), a herd was spotted in the Congress Mattam locality. Immediately, the baby elephant was taken there in a van.