Wild elephant gives birth to calf near house

Forest staff carries calf and reunites it with its mother seven kilometres away

Madikeri: A wild elephant, which went into labour, gave birth to a calf near a house in Keemale Kaadu of Karada village coming under Nariyandada Gram Panchayat limits late on Monday night.

A herd of four elephants was spotted near the house of Monnakuttanda Manju in the village on Monday night and the female elephant gave birth to the calf near Manju’s house.

As the news spread, villagers began to throng near Manju’s house to have a glimpse of the newborn elephant calf forcing the mother elephant to flee from the spot and take shelter at the nearby estate and began to trumpet for her baby.

Meanwhile, Forest Department personnel, who arrived at the spot, were at the receiving end from the villagers for arriving late. But the Forest personnel, under the guidance from Chief Conservator of Forests Manojkumar Tripati and Deputy Conservators of Forests Sharana Basappa and Nehru, who had the only aim of reuniting the newborn with its mother, first fed the newborn with glucose liquid and shifted the calf to the Department vehicle and went in search of the mother by following the blood trail left behind by the mother elephant.

The Forest staff carried the calf in the vehicle for about seven kilometres and later went about two kilometres inside Makutta Forest where they spotted the mother elephant. The Forest staff later kept the newborn calf at the spot and moved to a safe distance to keep a watch. They then saw the mother elephant approaching her baby and getting reunited with it.

DRFO Anil and staff Suresh, Bharat, Nanaiah, Lathesh, Anil, Vikas, Ponnappa, Dinesh and others took part in the operation to unite the calf with its mother.