Jumbo treated for stomach ailment delivers male calf

Forest officials had, on Thursday last, said that the animal had suffered constipation from early in the morning the previous day. They also had said the animal did not suffer any external injury. When treatment resumed early on Thursday, Forest officials had told reporters that antibiotics, vitamins and medicines for stomach ailment were administered to the animal along with the saline water.

It was also given anal medication through a tube to clean its stomach and relieve it of constipation, they had claimed then. But on Monday, Forest officials backtracked and announced they were indeed aware of the pregnancy and that they had treated the animal keeping in mind her biological factors. Department officials also said that the elephant was initially presumed to be aged around 35 but was actually 45-years-old. 

A department officer said that there were instances in the past of captive elephants giving birth at this age. At the camp, it would be easier to know if an elephant was pregnant but it was not the case with wild animals. “It is not easy to confirm the stage of pregnancy of a wild elephant as we do not know when mating had taken place. Moreover, the size of an elephant’s stomach does not increase to an identifiable stage when pregnant, just as in the case of other mammals. This makes it difficult to confirm if a jumbo in the wild is pregnant,” a Forest Department officer said on Monday. 

Though Forest officials had not disclosed the cow’s pregnancy, they had been monitoring her health on these parameters. An officer recalled that, on October 21, when the elephant was being shifted to the department’s Chadivayal camp, it was lifted into the truck using a crane in less than 30 seconds and again unloaded from the vehicle in the same amount of time. This was done to protect the cow’s foetus, he claimed. However, only just before the elephant gave birth to the male calf, officials and a team of veterinarians led by N.S. Manoharan were aware of the animal’s condition and immediately made the necessary arrangements. Senior officials said that they would try to release the animals into the forest after a few days. However, wildlife activists expressed concern over the acceptance of the mother and her calf (born in captivity) by the wild herd in the forest to which the mother belongs. 

The wild elephant was part of a herd of six elephants roaming about the foothills of Anubavi temple near Periya Thadagam. On October 19, villagers saw the lone ailing elephant fallen on the ground on a piece of agricultural land about 200 metres from the forest boundary.