Five Dubare elephants to embark on jumbo journey from Karnataka to MP

MADIKERI : Following the order from the State Wildlife PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden, five tamed elephants from Dubare Elephant Camp are being shifted to a camp in Bhopal of Madhya Pradesh. The elephants will be accompanied by the camp mahouts and they started their journey on Thursday evening.
The five elephants from Dubare camp are General Cariappa (8), General Thimayya (8), Vaali (40), Lava (21) and Maruthi (20).

The troop is being accompanied by the mahouts of the Dubare Camp who are likely to stay with the animals  for a few days to help them adjust to the new surroundings and people. Eight mahouts and caretakers from the camp left with the elephants for MP. The transfer was made in the evening alongside the presence of officials from the Kodagu division of the Forest Department and staff from Bhopal, MP division, Forest Department.

As per the court orders, an elephant camp can have a maximum of 15 elephants. However, the Dubare elephant camp has 32 inmates even as a few elephants were recently shifted to the newly opened Harangi Elephant Camp in the district. Further, the Kodagu division has received permission to capture four new notorious elephants in the district even as the residents demand capture of more conflict elephants to address the increasing wild elephant menace.

Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh division is in need of tamed elephants to fight the increasing tiger menace and wildlife conflict in the region and they had placed a request for tamed elephants from the state. Similarly, 14 tamed elephants from the state were identified to be shifted to MP from Karnataka, among which five elephants are inmates of the Dubare camp.