Locals’ ‘no’ to shifting of ‘Mangla’ from Kamlapur to Borban camp

By Kaushik Bhattacharya

Locals at Kamlapur near elephant camp in Gadchiroli are opposing shifting of the 32-year-old female elephant ‘Mangla’ to Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) based Borban camp in Nagpur. “Shifting of ‘Mangla’ to Borban camp will take some more time as the locals at Kamlapur camp are opposing the decision. We are holding talks with them on the issue. Soon, we will take a decision,” said a senior forest official who is aware about the development of the shifting process. Nagpur Forest Division established an elephant camp at its Chorbaoli Range for development of eco-tourism in PTR and for deep forest patrolling with the help of elephants. In the first phase, PTR got two male elephants named ‘Bhima’ (30) and ‘Subramanaya’ (29) from Karnataka’s Motigodu and Dubare elephant camps. Two more elephants were supposed to come from Karnataka including one male and one female elephant. However, the Maharashtra Forest Department failed to find out any female elephant from camps in Karnataka, meanwhile the department has decided to get the female elephant from Gadchiroli’s Kamlapur camp.

The process of shifting of the female elephant was already in itiated but in the recent development the process has delayed due to the objection raised by the locals. As per the information received by some locals from Kamlapur, the new born calf of Mangala was died in suspicious circumstances soon after delivery last year. It was raised questions over the working of the Kamlapur camp. As per the information, there are eight elephants are residing in Kamlapur camp including two male and six female and Mangala is the eldest one in the camp.

Whereas, the third male elephant ‘Ranjan’ (25 years), from Karnataka camp, is likely to arrive Nagpur within one month. “All the process of shifting of third male elephant from Karnataka to Nagpur has already completed. We are expecting that the elephant will come PTR with in a month,” Dr Prabhunath Shukla, Deputy Director, PTR told The Hitavada. Forest Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar recently inaugurated the Borban camp in Pench during his visit. He also clicked photographs with one of the elephant that residing in the Pench. Whereas the activities that will be performed by the two elephants will take some more time to start as one of the elephant is in aggressive mood due to ‘Musth’ period, informed Dr Shukla.