Jumbo learns Tamil in its new habitat

The twenty-two-year-old jumbo, Rohini, which has been familiar with Malayalam, is slowly picking up Tamil in its new habitat at Anaimalai in Pollachi near Coimbatore.

Interestingly, the jumbo has travelled a long way to reach its new habitat. It was handed over by its owner to the forest department following an order from the Madurai Bench of Madras High Court.

A native of Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar had bought the jumbo from Karnataka in 2001 to offer it to the Bhagavathi Amman Temple. 

However, he kept the animal till 2003 and sold it to another person. Thereafter, the second owner had approached the Virudhunagar forest department seeking permission to keep the animal with him.

When the forest department refused to furnish license citing lack of necessary documents, he moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court in November seeking to keep the animal with himself. However, the court issued an order to hand over the jumbo to the forest department.

Rohini was then taken into possession by the Rajapalayam forest department and was brought by the officials of Srivilliputhur Wildlife Sanctuary to Anamalai in Pollachi on December 14. Since then the jumbo has been quarantined and groomed by the forest department in Anaimalai.

In its new habitat, the jumbo was fraught with a language barrier. According to N Naveen Kumar, Forest Ranger Officer of Ulandi Forest Range of ATR, “So far, the jumbo has learnt to respond only to commands in Malayalam. 

Mahout Perumal, who was handling the animal, had taught to obey his commands in Malayalam. However, its new handler Mahali roped in from Kozhikamuthy elephant camp at Top Slip, used to speak only Tamil.” 

“Language was a barrier while giving instructions initially, but the jumbo is fast picking up Tamil words with its daily dose of lessons. The elephant is first taught to learn simple commands to sit, move front and back and lift its legs. As both Malayalam and Tamil sounds almost similar, the animal finds it easier to learn to new commands,” added another staff of the forest department. 

It will be trained for about a month before being shifted to its new home at Top Slip. The jumbo which has been habituated to live alone in a homely environment is likely to take some time to adapt to the forest ambience at the Kozhikamuthy camp.

Also before shifting the animal, the samples of urine, dung and blood of the jumbo has been sent for a test in Chennai to confirm that the animal is free from any diseases.