Elephant festival at BTR completes 3 days
| Date :05-Sep-2019 |
Staff Reporter :
On the third day of elephant festival at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR), large number of experts and mahouts gathered to spend time with elephants. On the day, elephants were decorated in attractive way and they were served their favourite food. It is week-long elephant festival at the reserve with special service to the jumbos. The festival will be continued by September 8. SDO, Forest Anil Shukla said, “Elephants enjoy the occasion with delicious food and special massage is being given to them for relaxation.
There are many experts gathered to share their experiences with elephants.” On the first day, elephants were given bath, massage with Neem oil, decoration with sandal powder, etc. They were also offered seasonal fruits, sugarcane, jaggery, chapatti and other favourite food. There are 18 adult and two baby elephants participating in the festival. Oldest elephant Gautam who is 70 years old is also taking part in this fest. He is giving training to other young elephants since year 1977 and also taking care of wildlife along with tiger movement. Officials of Forest Department said, most elephants in Bandhavgarh belong to the generation of Gautam.
Oldest female elephant Anarkali (45 years) is one of the major attractions of festival. Mahout Janannu Baiga said that, the elephant is busy in taking care of her nine-month-old female elephant Lakshman along with other wildlife. Other elephants rescued from Sidhi were also present in the festival. During the seven-day celebration, special arrangement has been made for the elephants. Jumbos are being served delicious feast for seven days. SDO Anil Shukla informed that, during the celebration, staff is servicing elephants with rituals of bathing, cleaning, nail cut, decoration, feast, etc. They are also being served with oil massage for good health. Veterinary doctors are engaged in medical check-up of elephants too. After health check-up, elephants are served their favourite fruits, sugarcane and banana. Then, after having food, veterinary doctors recheck their medical status.
Though, daily diet of elephants is fixed as per the routine chart, but during the festival, they are served their favourite food. The elephant festival is being organised in Tala zone of the reserve. A camp has also been set up in the zone, where several elephant experts and mahouts are invited to make discussion and feel special to the elephants. Dr Nitin Gupta said, the festival is traditionally organised every year just to monitor the health and do annual medical check-up of elephants. Officials said, once there was lack of elephants at Bandhavgarh, but today, there are 17 permanent elephants in the camp. Group of elephants from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are now active in Panpatha and Patora range of Bandhavgarh jungles. There are about 45 to 50 elephants in Bandhavgarh jungle.