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Extra care for elephant safaris in Kaziranga
As the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary witnesses a major surge in visitors, park rangers are taking extra care with elephant rides after an American tourist was killed by a tame pachyderm five years ago.
As the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary witnesses a major surge in visitors, park rangers are taking extra care with elephant rides after an American tourist was killed by a tame pachyderm five years ago.
Mahouts and rangers at the park in this northeastern state are keeping a close watch on its 33 domestic elephants and being very selective in allowing the animals to take visitors for wildlife safaris.
For pure safety reasons, a few of the park's 33 tame elephants were segregated from the herd, including 55-year-old tusker Godapani who had killed an American tourist and gored a fellow elephant to death in 1999.
"We are very choosy these days and using only those elephants who are generally gentle and well behaved," park ranger Dharnidhar Boro told IANS. "Mahouts and officials keep a constant vigil on the elephants before releasing them for the safaris."
Today the 10-ft tall tusker no longer takes visitors on its back inside the wilds but is engaged in a rigorous drill of warding off poachers and wild elephants and delivering supplies to isolated staff.
"Godapani is fit and fine now, although we have kept him out of normal safari duties," Boro said.
It was a split second "anger" that cost Godapani his cosy comforts of taking visitors on a ride four times a day inside the sanctuary.
Godapani along with six tame elephants were in the middle of the park with visitors on their back enjoying the wildlife from a close distance.
Then suddenly Godapani went berserk killing Mary Mead Bumder, an 80-year-old tourist from Boston, who was riding on another tame elephant a few feet away.
The enraged tusker then gored the tusk-less male elephant that was carrying Bumder by tearing apart its stomach.
Godapani was carrying tourists around the park for wildlife viewing since 1972 and was considered one of the most "majestic" tame elephants owned by the park
authorities until the fatal incident five years back.
"Most male elephants have some superiority complex in them and so we prefer using female elephants for the safaris," another park ranger said.
Kaziranga is home to more than 1,600 of the world's estimated 2,400 one-horned rhinos that now roam the thick savannah grasslands of Kaziranga.
The rhinos apart, the tropical sanctuary also boasts of a large number of Asiatic elephants, bison, deer, sloth bears as well as an occasional tiger and leopard, besides a large variety of birds.
The park this season is witnessing a surge in wildlife enthusiasts from both India and abroad with the figure touching a staggering 20,000 since the 430-km rhino sanctuary opened last month for visitors.
Kaziranga is preparing for centenary celebrations in February with a weeklong wildlife carnival that includes soccer matches by elephants, elephant fights, special safaris and lectures on conservation.
