Chittoor plans to tame lone elephant crossing Chittoor-Bengaluru highway as kumki
The Andhra Pradesh Forest Department has launched an operation in Chittoor district to capture and train a solitary wild elephant as a kumki. The move
The Andhra Pradesh Forest Department has launched an operation in Chittoor district to capture and train a solitary wild elephant as a kumki. The move is aimed at managing the growing human-elephant conflict in the tri-State region, particularly in the Palamaner forest range. Three elephant herds, of 17, 14 and seven animals, are now moving through the Palamaner and Chittoor forest ranges. They frequently stray into farmland and habitations, causing concern among residents.
Forest officials have identified a solitary sub-adult male elephant known for frequently crossing the Chittoor-Bengaluru Highway near the Moghili Ghat section. An action plan is under way to capture and tame the elephant for future field operations. Ganesh, a trained kumki housed at the Sri Venkateswara Zoological Park in Tirupati, is likely to be shifted to the Musalimadugu elephant camp near Palamaner. Deva, an elephant under training at the camp, will be shifted to the Tirupati zoo as part of the proposed plan.
Ganesh is expected to join trained kumkis Jayanth, the lead kumki at the Naniyala elephant camp near Kuppam, and Krishna and Abhimanyu from the Palamaner camp, in the operation to capture the solitary elephant. A forest official said that once the elephant was captured, it would undergo specialised training before being deployed in kumki operations. Officials said training an elephant to become a kumki was a gradual process carried out under the supervision of experienced veterinarians and mahouts.
A newly captured elephant is first acclimatised to human presence and trained to understand and respond to the mahouts’ commands. Jaggery and sugarcane are used as rewards during the training. After the rigorous training, the elephant is gradually introduced to forest conditions and later deployed alongside experienced kumkis such as Jayanth and Ganesh in elephant management operations.
The BriefWire