Tourists can feed, click selfies with elephants in PTR soon

Staff Reporter

Two elephants from Karnataka, Bhima and Subhramaniyam, that arrived at Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) few days ago, are now getting acclimatised of the hot weather of Nagpur in Borban elephant camp situated on the banks of Navegaon Khairi reservoir. Both trained elephants will start their routine work like patrolling and other activities inside the forest after 4-5 days. “Currently, both the elephants are getting used to the place with their Mahouts who came from Karnataka with the elephants. The Mahouts will stay in the camp with the elephants and our Mahouts will also stay with them to get themselves familiar with the jumbos,” Dr Prabhunath Shukla, Deputy Director, PTR told ‘The Hitavada’.

“To promote eco-tourism in Chorbaoli forest range, we will allow tourists to feed the jumbos in their camp and also to click selfies with them. After some time, we will start elephant safari also in some routes of the jungle,” said Dr Shukla. “The tuskers arrived in Nagpur from Dubare elephant camp at Madikeri in Karnataka. Both camps are situated in relatively cooler weather than Nagpur. We want that both elephants get acclimatise of the weather first and then we will allow them to enter in the forest,” said Dr Shukla.

Both elephants will help in rescue and search operations in Pench and Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserves. The third elephant ‘Ranjan’ will be brought to Pench next month and the fourth one will arrive after few months. The Forest Department established two protection camps in Chorbaoli Forest Range of PTR for these elephants. The Borban Camp is situated on the banks of Navegaon Khairi dam and the other camp is also situated close to the Borban camp. The second camp will accommodate more elephants in future. The camps are deep inside the forest with less human intervention. It has kitchen, storage, medicine and medical supplies, micro chipping and other facilities.