Elephant herd abandons 3-month-old calf in Keonjhar; attempts for reunion in vain

The Keonjhar Forest Division officials are facing a challenging situation as several attempts to reunite an abandoned three-month-old elephant calf with its herd have yielded no results so far. 

The baby elephant was separated from a herd of 13 elephants and has been under the care of the Forest Department for the past two days.

As per sources, several attempts by the department, including the use of two drones to locate the herd and release the calf near its mother has yielded no results. Though the elephant calf is willing to get reunited with its mother, the herd is repeatedly rejecting it. 

The movement of the 3-month-old calf, which is still dependent on its mother's milk, is being closely monitored by the Forest department officials at Keonjhar’s Padmapur nursery, where it is being fed an elephant milk alternative.

Dhanraj HD, Keonjhar Forest Division DFO said, “There have been similar incidents in other parts of India like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. If the calf gets separated from the herd due to accidental or human induced reasons then there were instances of the herd accepting the calf upon reuniting. We made several attempts to reunite the calf with the herd but they kept abandoning it. A team of experts is taking care of it and closely monitoring the condition of the calf.  The baby elephant is in good health and is playful.”

“However, if the calf gets abandoned in our further attempts then we will transfer it to an elephant nursery. Elephant nurseries are situated at several places, such as Nandankanan, Kapilash, Similipal. Based on the availability and facility, we will decide where the calf will be relocated,” he added further.