This Story Of An Ailing Elephant And Her Calf Will Move You To Tears

IAS officer Supriya Sahu often shares intriguing facts about wildlife conservation on her social media handle. On April 12, the officer shared a distressing tale of an ailing elephant that was found in a weakened state at the Sathyamangalam range. The elephant was accompanied by a 2-year-old calf. Upon noticing the condition of an elephant, the forest officers took all necessary steps to save the jumbo, but she died. Later, the calf was united with another elephant herd.

In her post on X (Formerly Twitter), the officer said that despite the tireless efforts of as many as four experienced veterinarians, they were unable to save the mother elephant, leaving the team devastated. Now, the main focus of forest staff is to ensure the safety of the orphaned elephant calf. Recognising the importance of uniting her with a herd for her survival in the wild, the team located a nearby elephant herd and facilitated her unification.

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The IAS officer wrote, “We need to watch this for some time to see if the calf is accepted. To confirm this, the ground team is now vigilant, and using thermal drone cameras and experienced elephant trackers to monitor the calf’s movement closely. We will do everything to ensure the well-being of the young one.”

A while ago, on March 3, the Tamil Nadu forest officers found a distressed elephant along with her two calves, including a sub-adult male and a young female baby elephant. The mother elephant was too weak to move and had been separated from her native herd. The mother elephant died on March 5 and the calf was united with another herd.

“On the evening of 3rd March in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve near Bannari, an ailing female elephant with two of her babies including a sub-adult male elephant and a very young female baby elephant was found to be lying in a distressed condition by the Tamil Nadu foresters. The moment we got to know about this a team of expert veterinarians was pressed into service,” Supriya wrote.

She further mentioned, “Her two babies were traumatised and started running uncontrollably in panic. The team immediately guided the young sub-adult elephant back to the herd and quickly attended to the ailing female and the baby elephant.”