The Tamil Nadu Forest Department staff on Wednesday, June 5, 2024, attempted to reunite a stranded wild elephant calf with its mother near Thondamuthur in Coimbatore.
Officials said that the four-month-old animal is the calf of a 40-year-old wild elephant that was released into the wild by the Department on June 3, after it was treated for four days for its ailments, at the Maruthamalai foothills.
The calf was spotted in an areca nut plantation in Kuppe Palayam near Thondamuthur on Wednesday morning. Frontline staff of the Department secured the calf and provided it with alternative milk (lactogen), based on the advice of a veterinarian.
District Forest Officer N. Jayaraj said that the staff had spotted the mother elephant within a radius of 1 km and were attempting to take the calf to her.
According to him, the calf had joined a herd of elephants while the mother was being treated by the veterinarians at the Maruthamalai foothills. The mother was released into the wild on June 3, and it subsequently joined the herd. The calf is believed to have got stranded in the areca plantation after it could not keep up with the herd that swiftly passed through Kuppe Palayam area, he said.
