There are numerous instances of wild elephants straying into human settlements in search of food and other reasons in Odisha. This sometimes leads to conflicts and loss of human lives. In view of the same, the Odisha government has sought trained ‘kumki’ elephants to mitigate human-elephant conflicts.
Satyabrat Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Forest, Environment & Climate Change, has written to his Tamil Nadu counterpart Supriya Sahu urging the latter to supply kumki elephants.
“The help in getting trained kumki elephants would greatly assist us in addressing these conflicts effectively and humanely. Kumki elephants can be deployed strategically to help us manage and drive wild elephants thereby reducing damage to crops, human habitations and the potential loss of both human and elephant lives,” Sahu’s letter read.
Odisha has placed a demand for four trained kumki elephants for deployment in conflict-prone areas of Odisha. “The mahouts taking care of those kumki elephants may also be deputed along with the elephants, for only initial handholding support to our local mahouts to get them acquainted with those kumki elephants,” the letter added.
What are Kumki Elephants?
Kumki elephants are the jumbos trained to capture and tame wild elephants. These elephants are also used in operations to rescue and also provide medical treatment to injured and trapped wild elephants.
These apart they can also be deployed for forest patrolling. Besides, whenever wild elephant(s) enter human settlements, these kumkis are deployed to drive them away.