Preparations in full swing for annual rejuvenation camp for temple elephants

The 48-day rejuvenation camp or festival will be held from the first week of February. This is the ninth annual rejuvenation camp that will be held on five acres of land close to the Nellimalai Reserve Forest. 

As many as 32 elephants from temples across the State are expected to take part in the annual event. The preparations for the camp is jointly being initiated by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) and Forest Departments, on Thursday. The authorities have completely removed thorny bushes at the camp site. 

Other measures such as erecting   temporary metal sheds for preparing medicines for the jumbos, metal sheet boundary for the camp, a canteen and temporary place of stay for mahouts and their assistants, forest department officers and HR & CE officials are underway. 

Temporary shower poles have also been set up to help the elephants enjoy a cool bath if the water level went down in the river. The entire area has been fortified with solar fencing. Fencing along the roads has also been strengthened. These measures would prevent wild elephants from entering the camp site, which is close to the forests. 

This year the camp site will have two layers of hanging solar fence as a double check to prevent entry of wild elephants, against one layer till last year. Each layer will be 50 feet apart, separated by a road.

Watchtowers: Six watchtowers for forest department personnel have been erected to monitor the entire camp area and to prevent the domesticated temple elephants from being attacked by wild elephants. Apart from this three mobile teams would keep a strict vigil around the camp to drive away the wild elephants.   Forest personnel will also carry out patrolling in jeeps not only around the camp but also in the nearby villages.

Lighting arrangement: More 50 focus lights, over 20 search lights (flood lights) and an equal number of small search lights will be used to protect the camp from wild animals. The preparations are expected to be completed before Thursday this week. But is all is not well with the event this year as the camp is being conducted during the migratory season for wild jumbos. It is forced to face challenges such as availability of fodder due to the drought last year. The annual rejuvenation camp is the pet project of late Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. The initiative began in 2003 following complaints that jumbos were not given proper care by temples and mutts. It aims at providing the elephants, a combination of rest, nutritious food and medical treatment (if necessary). Mahouts will also be apprised about dealing compassionately with the giant animals.

This year the camp for temple elephants is being conducted from the first week February to the third week of March when mercury levels slowly climb up. The eight previous annual rejuvenation camps for the jumbos were conducted in November or December. These months are usually the monsoon period in our State and it was conducive for the elephants. But, for the first time, in 2015 the camp was conducted from January 7 to the last week of February.

Despite moderate showers the camp faced fodder shortage. Officials had to literally transport the fodder all the way from Gudalur in The Nilgiris. The situation is even more worse this year as this region has received less than 50 per cent of the average annual rainfall. Also, the North East and South West monsoons have failed miserably. 

Thirty-two jumbos are expected to attend the camp this time. On an average, each elephant will require 200 to 250 kg of fodder, taking the total requirement and daily minimum fodder availability in the camp to more than seven tones. The regular schedule for the elephants would include a morning shower and a nutritious diet as prescribed by the veterinarians. 

The diet would include coconut, banyan and palm leaves besides sugarcane, rice, ragi, horse gram and green gram. Vitamins and mineral mixtures will also be part of the diet. The quantity of diet will be prescribed on the basis of gender, height, weight and age of each pachyderm. The progress card on the health of each elephant will be updated during the camp period, officials said. 

Jumbos also drink 150 litres water every day and need more than 1,000 litres of water to bathe. This helps to keep them cool. To meet their water requirements, talks are on to drill borewells close to the river to meet water shortage if the river water was found to be inadequate. Meeting the heavy water and fodder requirement is going to be a challenge, say officials. Protecting them from wild elephants is going to be another challenge. 

“Elephants in the wild hit by drought and fodder shortage will be attracted to the fresh smell of fodder in the camp,” said a senior forest officer. Forest personnel said that nearly 50 wild elephants are moving in herds close to the dam site as it is the migratory season. 

The jumbos have moved from Periyanaickenpalayam and Karamadai to Mettupalayam. In the next few weeks they will be moving from Mettupalayam to Sirumugai and to Bhavani Sagar. 

Considering these factors the forest department has doubled the number of hanging solar fence layers, watch towers from four last year to six this year and the number of high intensity search lights from 10 to 20 this year, to protect the temple elephants.