Kaziranga, 22 October, 2014: Sunday night saw yet another arrival of a female elephant calf at the IFAW- WTI run Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC). The calf was rescued by the Assam Forest Department from villagers who had kept the calf in their custody and were worshipping it as a God.
Pranab Kumar Bora, Forest Ranger, who led the rescue team said, “We got a call around 6 in the evening that a calf was in people’s custody in a village and they were worshiping it as God in Majigaon-Thekeraguri area under Nagaon Territorial Division. We rushed to the spot to rescue the calf within half an hour.”
It took a lot of convincing the villagers who were mostly from the Karbi tribal community, before the calf was handed over to the forest department staff. Dulu Bora, an official of Green Guard, the conservation NGO working in that area extended all support in facilitating this rescue.
\Since no herd was present in the vicinity, it was decided to shift the calf to CWRC for further care.
The CWRC team led by Dr. Panjit Basumatary and animal keepers Lakhiram Das and Tarun Gogoi, attended to the calf on their way to CWRC at Burhapahar Forest Beat office and brought the calf under mild sedation to the IFAW-WTI animal care centre with the FD team.
“The calf is dehydrated, with no visible sign of external injury, but stressed.” said Dr. Panjit Basumatary of CWRC after morning investigation on Monaday. The calf had travelled 60km and is under observation at the large animal nursery.
Interestingly, the FD team of Chapanala beat was earlier informed about another solitary calf on Sunday morning from Bar Basti village, 3no. Kona of Na-Noi Tea Estates (Khagrabari) by Mr. Martin Bhengra, a farmer from the village. By the time the forest department team reached the spot, the villagers were able to direct the calf close to a herd. According to Mr. Martin, “We saw the calf in the foothills of the forest and the herd on the hilltop. The calf was uninjured so, we immediately introduced it to the herd. Thereafter there was no sign of a solitary calf’s presence in that area. We guess it was accepted by the herd.”
Mr. Bora, the ranger from Chapanala beat suspects that this could be the same calf reunited earlier with the herd. The calf may have been left alone by the herd again and landed to the other side of the hillocks in Majigaon –Thekeraguri area, which is nearly one kilometer in distance through the forest patch.
The northern range of Chapanala is habitually prone to human –elephant conflict. Nearly 200 elephants come down to raid the paddy fields in the cropping season. This calf is believed to be separated from the herd during their usual transit through the paddy field towards the hills.
