BHUBANESWAR: The state government has started training two orphaned captive elephants as ‘Kunkis’ (also called ‘Kumki’) at a new facility in Chandaka wildlife division.
The two elephants - five-year-old female Mama and three-year-old male Jaga have already been brought from Nandankanan zoological park and another forest division for training at the facility created in Kumarkhunti within Chandaka wildlife division.
One female jumbo and two male elephants, all aged around six, will be brought to Kumarkhunti from Kapilash sanctuary in Dhenkanal in the comings days for being trained as Kunkis.
Mahouts from Assam, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will stay in Odisha for at least a year to train the elephants. They will also guide the forest staff of the state on ways to train the captive elephants as Kunkis. Two mahouts from Assam and three from within Odisha have already arrived at the facility.
More captive elephants will likely be brought to Chandaka as the new facility has the capacity to train around eight jumbos at a time, said a forest official. PCCF (Wildlife) Susanta Nanda had earlier informed the state at present has captive elephants in four places and they can be used for assisting in conflict management more effectively. The new facility, which has solar fence, is called Kunki elephant training centre and was inaugurated by Nanda on the day.
Forest officials said Jasoda, a 30-year-old elephant from Chandaka, was trained as Kunki and sent to Similipal tiger reserve recently to assist the Forest department in capturing, calming and herding wild elephants and drive them away in conflict situations. ‘Kunki’ is a trained captive elephant used in operations to capture wild ones. The jumbos are sometimes also engaged to rescue or provide medical treatment to an injured or trapped wild elephant.