State to hand over 11 captive elephants to Madhya Pradesh

The State Forest Department has identified 29 jumbos in various camps

A herd of captive elephants with their calves seen wandering the Bandipur Elephant camp. Photo: M.A Sriram.

The Union Government has given permission to Karnataka to hand over 11 captive elephants to Madhya Pradesh, mostly for use in safaris.

According to sources, the permission was granted in November last following a request from the State Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Wildlife Warden. The State Forest Department had identified 29 elephants in various camps from which forest officials from Madhya Pradesh could choose, Ajay Mishra, Field Director, Project Elephant, told The Hindu .

This included six female elephants and one ‘makhna'. Officials from Madhya Pradesh visited the camps 20 days ago, but were yet to finalise the elephants to be handed over to them, Mr. Mishra said.

However, he clarified that it was not a sale or gifting of elephants as Gajah, the national task force on elephants, had banned it. “Karnataka could spare the elephants as they are not being used in logging operations. They could no longer be used in religious activities or festivals, with Mysore Dasara being an exception,” Mr. Mishra said. The captive elephants were now being used in elephant safaris in the State. Madhya Pradesh does not have elephants as forests with the pachyderms went to Chhattisgarh after the bifurcation of the State.

Among the 29 elephants proposed to be provided, 12 are from the Hunsur wildlife division.

Among them, Rajesh (49 years), Ravi (35), Vishnu (40), Rajendra (47), Srinivasa (7), Bhima (9), Tunga (9), are from the Hebballa elephant camp, Sarathi (5) from the Sunkadakatte camp, Khyata (10) from the Murkal camp, Kumaraswamy (39), Yogalakshmi (5) and Mary (4) are from the Balle camp.

The 10 elephants from the Project Tiger Division, Bandipur, are Lakshmi (9), Rohit (9), Ganesh (8), Krishna (10), Seeta (9), Drona (6), Manikanta (4) and Raja (2.5 years), all from the Ramapura camp, Balaji (4) and Parthasarathi (4) from the Bandipur camp. Then, there are four from the Dubare camp in the Madikeri wildlife division.

They are Kaveri (33), Mayura (23), Chandra (28) and Parashurama (6). The three from the Sakrebylu camp in the Shimoga wildlife division are Ganesha (27), Rajendra (30) and New Makhna (15).