COIMBATORE: Despite farmers protesting against the organsing of an elephant camp at Mettupalayam, the tenth state-wide temple elephants’ rejuvenation camp started near Thekkampatti on Thursday.
This refreshing unwinding exercise for the tamed pachyderms of temples under the State HR and CE department was first started at the Mudhumalai-Theppakkadu camp under an initiative by the former Chief Minister, J J Jayalalitha in 2003 and continued there for the next four years.
Later on, considering the difficulties in transporting the elephants over a long distance and to avoid driving them to the hills in lorries, the venue was shifted to Mettupalayam-Thekkampatty near Vanbathrakaliamman temple close to the Bhavani river bank at the foothills of the Western Ghats.
This year, around 33 elephants from several temples and mutts from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were brought to Thekkampatty to attend the 48-day camp along with their mahouts. The camp started on Thursday and will go on till February 20, official sources told DC.
Excellent arrangements were made by the HR&CE department for the annual camp. The HR&CE minister Sevvoor S.Ramachandran along with Forest department minister Dindigul Srinivasan inaugurated the camp. Local area MLAs including P R G Arunkumar, O.K.Chinaraj, Amman Arjunan, Eshwaran, Coimbatore district collector, Mr. T.N. Hariharan, DFO Satheesh and officials from various departments also took part in the modest function.
The elephants were given a splendid bath under showers installed at the camp, given food supplements and medications, in what was a rare get-together for the temple jumbos.
Mahout feeding an elephant at the camp. (Photo: DC)
S.Palanisamy, president, Tamil Nadu Farmer’s Association, Coimbatore chapter told the DC that when many elephants are camped at one place, a strong smell spreads across the woods attracting wild elephants towards the camp for mating, this being their migratory season.
These wild elephants enter neighboring villages and remain in the surrounding areas, ravaging crops and creating possibilities for man-animal conflict. Last year’s camp saw such an incident, he said.
On Wednesday, villagers from 23 villages around Thekkampatty along with farmers and activists gathered near the Karamadai taxi stand and staged a protest, demanding dropping of the elephants camp at Thekkampatty. They also raised slogans demanding change of venue.
