Kushalnagar: Dasara elephant Gopi has sustained minor injuries when a wild tusker attacked him when he was chained at Dubare Elephant Camp on Tuesday night.

It is leant that Gopi, who has participated six times in Mysuru Dasara and housed at Dubare Elephant Camp, was in musth and hence he was chained. He was being taken care by Kavadi Shiva.

On Tuesday night, a wild tusker, which was also in musth, entered the camp and attacked Gopi, who retaliated but could not completely fight with the wild tusker as he was chained. Gopi is said to have sustained minor injuries on his shoulder.

Meanwhile, over 30 Rapid Response Team (RRT) personnel, along with Mahouts and Kavadis at the camp, tried to separate the two elephants but they both indulged in a fierce fight.

Finally, RRT personnel managed to chase the wild elephant back to the forest.

Yesterday, Veterinarian Dr. Mujeeb provided treatment to Gopi and it is learnt that the treatment will go on for two more days.

Deputy Range Forest Officer (DRFO) Ranjan said that Gopi has not sustained serious injuries and it is being treated for the injury.

It is learnt that there are a total of 30 tamed elephants in Dubare out of which 27 are male and 3 female. Out of the three female elephants, one is housed in Anekadu Camp, one in Dubare Camp and the other is a calf.

With just one adult female elephant in the camp, it is very difficult to control the male elephants as two to three males come to musth at a time. Now, Gopi and Ajay are in musth at the camp. When tuskers at the camp come to musth, they are chained, kept away from visitors, not allowed into the forest for grazing and are fed inside the camp.

Without proper ratio of male and female elephants at the camp, it has become very difficult to control the tuskers at the camp when they are in musth.