New Anarkali-Salim love story blooms in Madhya Pradesh
BHOPAL: Beyond the fiction of the Salim-Anarkali love story, a real romance appears to be blossoming between another Salim-Anarkali couple in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh.
The management of the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) and National Park in Umaria district seems to be in a dilemma over the romance between one of its most trusted and trained 58-year-old female elephant Anarkali and over 35 years younger wild male elephant, who was christined Salim by the villagers, owing to fascination for the mother of four elephants.
Both Anarkali and Salim seem to have fallen for each other. The young adult male elephant, who often breaks away from his herd of wild pachyderms, has been seen in Anarkali’s company twice or thrice.
According to BTR sources, the male elephant has been seen pushing the mother of four elephants Anarkali with his tusk, followed by the two vanishing in the forests, before the more than five-decade-old female elephant’s return to her base camp in Tala area.
While the mating of Anarkali with Salim (one of the 50-odd wild elephants who have made BTR their home since 2018) is likely to result in the birth of a stronger offspring due to gene-mixing (devoid of the possibility of genetic problems arising out of inbreeding), the BTR is particularly monitoring their movement, as there is a risk that Anarkali might enter the wild herd with Salim.
“Around a month ago, one of our other captive and trained female elephants, 11-year-old Bandhavi fell for another male elephant from the wild herd outside her base camp, but returned two days later, because of non-acceptance by the wild herd. Anarkali moves with her two offsprings (aged 4 and 1 years), so there is a risk of the wild elephant herd harming them, while she comes close to the young male elephant of the same herd,” BTR sub-divisional officer (SDO) Sudhir Mishra told TNIE.
Anarkali, who has four offspring aged 10, seven and four years, and one year, respectively, is the second oldest (the eldest being 76-year-old Gautam) among the 14 captive elephants trained to patrol the BTR. She was brought to BTR in 1978-79 from Bihar’s famous Sonepur Elephant Fair. Since then she has been trained to patrol in the BTR and is among one of the most trusted elephants.
The BTR staff are keeping a tab over Anarkali’s growing proximity with the young male, as her wild attribute might revive in the event of regular contact with the wild herd, followed by her becoming part of them. This will be a loss to BTR’s trusted elephant population. Elephants cannot be domesticated. In captivity they remain semi-wild even after being trained. Greater exposure to wild elephants might turn the captive elephants wild.
Pairing up
Both Anarkali and Salim seem to have fallen for each other. The young adult male elephant, who often breaks away from his herd of wild pachyderms, has been seen in her company twice or thrice at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve