The tale of Baahubali, the elephant that eludes officials who want to study him

If Forest Department officials are able to radio collar Baahubali, it will be a breakthrough in studying elephant behaviour in the Mettupalayam forest region.
An elephant walking near a waterbody
An elephant walking near a waterbody
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How many people have experienced an elephant crossing roads along with them? Even though the thought seems bizarre, this has been an everyday occurance for over a year now for the people of Mettupalayam, located in the foothills of the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore district. An aged elephant, with big ears and a brisk gait, visits them every day. Though the people were scared that the jumbo would go on a rampage in town, he had other plans— to silently visit fields, eat fresh fodder and then go back to the forest in the morning.

The Forest Department identified the elephant as a 40-year-old male. The people of Mettupalayam started calling him Baahubali for his gigantic appearance, and the way he does not pay heed to the honking cars while he is crossing roads or to the firecrackers used to shoo him back to the forest. Baahubali travels alone, without a herd, and is suspected to have been tempted to enter the fields by the maize and bananas grown there. Though he never harmed anyone, the residents were still worried as his visits caused losses to the farmers’ crops. They were also worried about man-animal conflicts in the region. 

In light of this, the Chief Wildlife Warden ordered a survey of Baahubali’s daily movement, migratory path and habitat, in order to help avoid man-animal conflict. To aid this project, the World Wide Fund for Nature provided a radio collar to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department. District Forest Officer (DFO) of Coimbatore Forest Division, Venkatesh, said, “We planned to tranquilise the animal and place a radio collar around his neck to conduct a scientific study on the movement and habits of the jumbo. Our team is monitoring the elephant and we have a veterinary team helping us.” 

To carry this out, the forest officials decided to bring Baahubali to a flat surface and tranquilise him. They also deployed three Kumki elephants— Kalim, Mariappan and Venkatesh— to help them by encircling Baahubali when the time came. Kumki elephants are specially trained to trap or rescue wild elephants. The operation was set to begin on June 26. 

Two weeks ago, the Forest Department formed a team to monitor the elephant; but when the time came to put the radio collar on him, clever Baahubali went off the radar and has remained elusive since then. On day two, he remained inside the Odanthurai Reserve Forest area, and was last spotted near Sirumugai Forest Range on Saturday night. 

The DFO told reporters that Baahubali usually crosses the Kotagiri road and enters the Mettupalayam forest range limits. However, he smelled the Kumki elephants and so remained inside the forest, the DFO added. 

Forest Department officials managed to get close to the tusker and tried to tranquilise him, but this failed and he moved to the top of a hill. He then joined a herd, as of 3 pm on Tuesday, June 29. According to the DFO, the team was waiting for the elephant to reach a suitable place to tranquilise him and put the radio collar on. However, the operation was halted after it was found that Baahubali was under stress due to the constant monitoring, and did not consume the required food or water during this period. 

However, the Forest Department mulls resuming the radio collaring operation within a week. DFO Venkatesh said, “Once we tranquilise the jumbo, we can monitor the movement by ourselves instead of getting an alert from the villagers. This will also be a breakthrough to study elephant behaviour in the region. A complete route map will be ready within a few years and we can aim to reduce the man-animal conflict.”

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