Tamil Nadu forest officials reunite baby elephant separated from herd

Supriya Sahu IAS, Principal Secretary, Environment Climate Change & Forests, Tamil Nadu government had tweeted out videos of the rescue of the baby elephant and the attempts made to reunite it with the herd.

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu forest department officials succeeded in an attempt to reunite a baby elephant with its herd near the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in Nilgiris. The forest staff who were on rounds on Tuesday morning found the baby elephant stuck in the mud in the Cherambadi forest range, following which they attempted some measures to reunite the elephant with its group.

The major challenge in reuniting baby elephants that are separated from their herd, is that - the herd must be somewhere in the vicinity of the lost baby for an easy reunion, else the baby won’t be accepted by other herds of elephants. In cases where the baby cannot be reunited with the herd, forest officials would have to take the elephant captive and raise it in a captive elephant camp.

In this case, the forest staff left the baby elephant near what was suspected to be its own herd, but the baby came back running to the humans, owing to heavy rain and mist. On the following day, the officials are said to have used a small rope and tied the baby elephant near the spot where it was first found. This was done in the hope that the herd would find the baby based on its trumpeting calls.