Elephant Festival concludes at Bandhavgarh Reserve

One of the elephant decorated on the festival.

Staff Reporter :

WEEK-LONG Elephant festival concluded at Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve (BTR) with medical treatment, feast, fitness and care to the jumbos on Sunday. During this festival, fitness test of all elephants was done in well-mannered. Nails, trunk, eyes and skins of elephants were treated with neem oil massage and cleaned. Mahout offered special bath to the jumbos in pond with treated water. After bath, elephants were decorated with sandalwood powder, turmeric and other species.

They were also offered seasonal fruits, sugarcane, jaggery, chapatis and their favourite food. There are 18 adults and two baby elephants who took part in the festival. Oldest elephant Gautam (70) was the main centre of attraction he had sandalwood decoration and oiling was done on his nails. He is giving training to other young elephants since year 1977 and also taking care of wildlife along with tiger movement. Officials of Forest Department said that most of the elephants in Bandhavgarh belong to Gautam’s generation.

Oldest female elephant Anarkali (45) was also one of the major attractions in the festival. Mahaut Janannu Baiga said that the elephants are busy in taking care of her nine months old female elephant Lakshman along with other wildlife. The festival is traditionally organising every year just to monitor the health and do annual medical check-up of elephants.