KOCHI: At the Kodanad Elephant Training Centre, life has turned super busy since the crack of dawn on Wednesday. The two-month-old baby elephant, Gayathri, reached Kodanad after her long journey from Karuvarakundu at 3.30 am. Since then, everyone from the forest officer to the mahouts at Kodanad have just one thing running on their minds, the care of the little she-elephant.“You have to be as careful with the little elephant as you are with a baby. Everything must be extremely hygienic. All the utensils and containers are washed in boiled water to prevent before feeding the elephant. Even the staff wash their hands in warm water before handling the elephant”, said Divisional Forest Officer, Malayatoor, V N Nagaraj.The elephant was found at an estate in Karuatakadu by the workers there. After arriving here, she got her new name, Gayathri. Gayathri is now housed in a special bamboo cage. “If it is placed in an ordinary wooden cage she might not get adapted to it. So we have housed her within a the bamboo cage with mud flooring. This will be closest to the forest. When it is in the nature of the forest, it is hygienic for the elephant. But any bit of human waste can affect it”, said the DFO. After the advice of the doctors, the elephant is now fed with only tender coconut at regular intervals. “It has mild dehydration. So it is given tender coconut water and glucose. After a few days, we will be able to feed it with milk, a combination of lactogen and water.”, said P V Subramanian, the mahout at Kodanad. Subramanian has reared around 13 elephants. For him being able to feed a baby elephant is a thing of delight.“For a baby elephant, whoever feeds it is its the mother. Even this elephant makes some childlike suckling sounds when you feed it, thinking that it is its mother who is feeding it. Some of the elephants you feed will remember your sound and your smell throughout their lives. Whenever you approach them they will make these sweet sounds in recognition”, says Subramanian.The Kodanad Elephant Training Centre now has eight elephants, six of whom are calves, in the age ranging from 6 months to 8 years. Owing to its success in training baby elephants, the centre has been getting an increasing number of elephants. Once they are grown up, the elephants are given away to individual persons or to institutions like temples.
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