MYSURU, BENGALURU: In one of the rarest incidents, the forest department staffers and some tourists were not just witness to an elephant giving birth, but also to twins at the Bandipur Tiger Reserve two days ago. The tourists and staffers spotted a herd of elephants, including the pregnant female in labour, struggling to give birth near the old ticket counter. Unable to stand any longer, the elephant moved into a small water body, just 200 metres away from the reception centre, for the safety of her offspring and for ease of delivery. Soon, two tiny tots were out and swimming next to their mother.
“As the news spread, tourists started gathering with mobile phones and cameras to take photographs and videos. The wild cow elephant, which was still in postdelivery pain, was petrified to come out of water as a large crowd had gathered. Everyone could see two small heads floating in water. Fearing that they would drown as all three were not coming out of water, we cleared the crowd and guarded the area. After a long wait, feeling safe, the mother elephant emerged from the water body and then helped her calves out,” BTR Director Ramesh Kumar told TNIE. “Soon after the birth, all the three went back to their herd. We are not tracking them as we don’t want to disturb them and add pressure on the newborns,” he said.
This is only the second such birth of twin elephant calves that they have come across, he added. The first was in 1994. But conservationists suggested that the twins have to be watched closely. Their growth, survival and lifecycle patterns should be studied, they said. Elephant expert R Sukumar said such twins have been seen in only 1 per cent of captive animals. But the percentage in the wild is not known as it is a rare occurrence. “I have been recording all captive breeding cases since 1926 and have seen just four so far.
The first was on May 21, 1971 in Mudumalai where Devaki gave birth to Vijay and Sujay. The second was in Bandipur in the 80s when Ashwin and Bharini were born and the third was in Anamalai in Tamil Nadu and the recent was again in Mudumalai. I had also seen wild twins in 1991 in Mudumalai,” he said. As elephants have large bodies and long gestation periods, giving birth to more than one calf is rare. They could be identical, non- identical, of two genders or of the same gender. A detailed study should be conducted to record their survival rate, he said.