Coimbatore: The Forest department here has replaced two ‘kumki’ elephants from Sadivayal camp that were deployed for preventing wild elephants from entering human habitats in and around Coimbatore areas.
A forest higher official told the DC, Sadivayal Kumki elephant camp was started during 2012 at a cost of Rs 58 lakh to prevent wild elephants from entering into human habitats which in turn led to man-animal conflicts.
The camp was set up on a 20-acre area, the main objective of the camp being to deploy ‘kumki’ elephants immediately during any man-animal conflict and as part of preventive measures in the 315-km long forest boundary in the district of which nearly 250-km was found to be conflict-prone.
Two ‘kumkis’, Nanjan and Paari were brought to the camp from Top slip. But Nanjan unfortunately died in 2012 and Sujay from Mudhumalai replaced Nanjan and soon became a close friend of Paari.
