Bengaluru: There's hope yet for Sidda, the tusker, which fractured its leg after accidentally falling into a ditch near the backwaters of the Manchanabele dam in Magadi taluk, Ramanagar some weeks ago. To the relief of wildlife enthusiasts and villagers around, a team of vets arrived on Friday to take stock of his injury and treat him.
The elephant had retreated into knee-deep water near the dam to keep the weight off its injured leg, and was initially pumped with high doses of antibiotics and pain-killers by the forest department even as voluntary groups and ordinary people began a 'Save Sidda' campaign. But on Friday, responding to the suggestions of a panel headed by Chief Conservator of Forests, Dilip Kumar Das, two vets, Dr Kushalkumar Sharma from Assam and Dr Arun Zakaria from Kerala, arrived at the Manchanabele backwaters to take the injured elephant’s treatment a notch up. While two Dasara elephants, Gajendra and Harsha from the Dubare Elephant camp, helped bring Sidda out of the water and prop him up, the vets tranquilised him and cleaned and bandaged his injured leg to prevent it from getting more infected, watched by hundreds of curious villagers.
A special scanner brought from Delhi thanks to the efforts of Wildlife, a non-governmental organisation led by Dr Arun Shah, gave the vets a better idea of the fracture suffered by the elephant.
Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Jairam said Sidda would be given nutritious food along with his medicines for the next three days and the next course of treatment would be decided based on his condition. “We are optimistic that Sidda will recover in a few days and return to the forests,” said Dr Sharma.
