Bhubaneswar: Ace Nature Conservationist Susanta Nanda has unveiled an innovative program for wildlife lovers.
Accordingly State Wildlife Organization has started training orphaned captive elephants as ‘Kunkis’ (also called ‘Kumki’) at its new facility in Chandaka wildlife division.
Principal Conservator of Forests (PCCF) Wildlife, Susanta Nanda has inaugurated the Kumki Elephant Training Centre at Kumarkhunti inside Chandaka wildlife division near Bhubaneswar on March 6 this year.
The Centre has special arrangements like kitchen, restaurant, night shelter, bathing area and playing field for elephants.
At present, six wild elephants named Mama, Chandu, Uma, Kartik, Master Jaga and Shankar are under training there. Thirteen mahouts & assistant mahouts from Odisha and Assam are providing them training.
The young elephants that got separated from their herd are being trained at the centre. The elephants have been brought from different forest areas of the State including Similipal and Kapilas, said Sarat Chandra Behera, divisional forest officer (DFO), Chandaka Wildlife Division.
After complete training nearly after six months, the kumki elephants will be engaged in different activities and exercises like to drive away elephant herds from human habitations, he said.
A restaurant with separate specified areas for each elephant has been opened at the centre, where breakfast and lunch being provided to the animals, Soumya Ranjan Beura, a forester officer of Chandaka wildlife division.
Starting from raising their trunks in the air to standing on a small boulder with four legs on it, they do everything with utmost precision, he said.
The day of the young elephants starts after a brisk morning walk and light exercise. Then, fruits like banana, coconut, carrot, sugar cane and watermelon are served to them for breakfast at around 8.30 AM.
After breakfast, the training programme of the wild animals started while lunch was served after an hour-long bath at Kumarakhanti Dam.
In lunch, each student is provided six kilograms of wheat, five kg rice, one kg green gram, one kg of horse gram, some millets, two to three kg of vegetables, four coconuts, some bananas and 500 grams of jaggery. The lunch was served after cooking at a special kitchen set for them.
In the afternoon, the elephants are engaged in different other activities like playing football and showing different skills. Later, during sunset, the mahouts take them to their respective sheds set up there to spend the night, where they are provided with grass, tree branches, banana stems, straw etc for consumption throughout the night.
The night shelter has been set up just in front of the houses of the mahouts so that they can keep a close watch on the elephants in the night also, said Shri Beura.