A Bandhavgarh elephant calf strayed 50 km after deaths of herd members. Rescued, but ‘refusing food’

Unable to feed himself, traumatised calf rescued from Guda Khurd village after he wandered far from reserve. It is believed his mother was among the 10 elephants that died there.

The elephant calf in the pick-up vehicle | Photo: Special arrangement

Bhopal: Over a week after 10 elephants died due to consumption of a fungal neurotoxin at Madhya Pradesh’s Bandhavgarh National Park, the state forest department Wednesday rescued a two-year-old elephant calf who was found roaming roughly 50 km away from the reserve.

The baby elephant is believed to have been a part of the same herd and traumatised by the demise of the other animals.

According to forest officials, the calf left the reserve and entered the Guda Khurd village on the border of the Umaria and Katni districts, from where it was finally rescued by a team of more than 60 forest personnel and veterinarians.

The calf was first considered missing on Tuesday morning when it came to light that a baby elephant had hit a man on a cycle on NH-43.

A senior forest official told ThePrint that the calf is being considered an orphan and got separated from the remaining two elephants of its 13-member herd. Of this group, 10 animals died.

“Unable to feed himself, it began wandering aimlessly and travelled about 20-odd km away from the forest and reached Mahanadi, a tributary of the Son river that flows close to the border of Umaria district,” the official said.

The anxious calf, being so young, was unable to feed on any crops from paddy to sugar while it ran from one spot to another, further exhausting itself, he explained.

“Elephants are social animals, and when a two-year-old calf loses its mother, it shows signs of trauma and wanders aimlessly. We wanted to ensure no harm comes to the calf or villagers and hence constituted a team to monitor and rescue the animal,” said Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) L. Krishnamoorthy.

A difficult rescue

The team of personnel from Bandhavgarh, Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve and Kanha National Park, and veterinarians from Umaria and Katni, were rushed to the spot where the calf had been spotted.

After spending the entire Tuesday trying to track the calf, the team zeroed in on its location in the evening as it was trying to find its way through the fields near Chandia town. But with the sun setting and forest personnel losing light, there was little that could be done for the animal.

The rescue effort was complicated by the fact that the calf was roaming in an area on the border of two districts, which had different personnel and made coordination work a challenge.

The forest headquarters finally assigned the task of rescuing the calf to Amit Dubey, the field director of Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, and a team of personnel from both districts was sent to assist him. The forest department also began work to ensure that the animal was captured without the need to tranquilise it.

“It is not possible to carry out rescue work in the dark, and the best we could do at that point was keep track of the calf. Besides, there are techniques to rescue an elephant in the jungle, but when far away, we have to capture it and take it back,” Dubey told ThePrint.

A team of 20-odd forest personnel lay guard on Tuesday night, monitoring the animal’s movement. By Wednesday, the calf had travelled another 8 km to reach Guda Khurd.

Two domesticated elephants with their mahouts were called in from Kanha reserve in order to give the calf a sense of security. The calf followed the two elephants who led it to the pick-up van that had to ferry the animal back to the jungle. But it resisted getting into the vehicle, according to the forest officials.

The elephant calf following the other elephants | Photo: Special arrangement

“We decided to use just enough sedatives that would calm the calf and allow us to take it back to Bandhavgarh,” said Dubey. The calf is now back in Bandhavgarh and has been kept at a camp under monitoring.

The baby elephant is still refusing food, despite being given bananas, and will now be monitored over the next two days to ensure the sedatives have not left any impact. In the meantime, forest officials are also considering a DNA test to check whether the calf’s mother was among the 10 dead elephants.

“If we leave the calf with another herd, they will not accept him and he will again start wandering. Hence, we will first have to ascertain who its mother was before taking any further action. For now, the animal is safe and under observation,” Dubey said.

(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)