Madikeri: Dubare Elephant Camp in Kodagu, which was temporarily closed, opened for tourists this morning with new safety guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) being implemented.

The camp was temporarily closed following the death of a woman tourist when Makhna elephant Airavata fell on the woman after it was attacked by elephant Kanjan on May 18. Airavata succumbed to injuries the next day.

Initially, the camp activities will be conducted from 9.30 am to 11.30 am. A decision will be taken to extend the timings in the coming days after reviewing the situation.

Earlier, tourists at Dubare were allowed to move around freely, bathe the elephants and interact closely with elephants. Under the proposed guidelines, strict zoning and physical barriers have been introduced to prevent tourists going close to the animals. The guidelines also include prohibition of any physical contact with elephants by tourists such as touching, feeding, bathing, clicking selfies very close to the elephants or standing close to them.

The guidelines also mandate visitors to remain in the green zone and not to cross the barricades and maintain a safe distance from the elephants. Tourists will be allowed in batches with time duration of 45 minutes per batch. A maximum of 150 tourists will be allowed in a batch.