COIMBATORE: The wild elephant nicknamed ‘Rolex,’ which was captured at Thondamuthur in Coimbatore forest division and kept in a kraal (a wooden enclosure) at Varagaliyar near Topslip in the Ulanthy forest range in Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) for 25 days, was released at Manthiri Mattam inside the reserve forest in ATR on Wednesday night.
The animal, before it was released into the wild, was fitted with a radio collar and is being monitored by the dedicated field-level staff around the clock. While three will be stationed during the daytime and three staff during night. The animal was shifted to Manthiri Mattam, which is a backwater of the Parambikulam reservoir, from a kraal in a lorry with the help of Kumki elephants, and the place of the release is located 9 to 10 km away from human habitations on both sides of the four corners, and there was a thick forest on the remaining two sides.
The decision was taken to release the animal into the wild after the behaviour of the animal had changed drastically since it had completed 25 days in the kraal. During the initial days, the animal even refuses to clean inside the kraal. However, after ten days, the animal showed calm towards the mahout and Kavadis, who are assigned to take care of the animal.
After checking the health of Rolex, Dr N Kalaivanan, Forest Veterinary Officer at the Srivilliputhur Megamalai Tiger Reserve S Vennila Forest Veterinary Officer of Coimbatore, certified that the animal is healthy.
D Venkatesh, Conservator of Forests and Field Director of MTR said, “A team of six staff stationed at Manthiri Mattam with antennae exclusively for monitoring the animal. Our team will locate the animal using the GPS reading received from the radio collar,".
"The staff will share the location of the animal with us in the WhatsApp group, and we are getting updates about the animal once every hour. There was abundant bamboo and a variety of grasses in the backwaters of Parambikulam that’s why the animal was released for fodder and a water source,” he added.
This is the first time that the wild elephant has been soft-released into the wild within ATR after keeping the animal in a kraal for close to four weeks.