Corbett jumbo fails to recover & dies at Aamdanda

Despite best efforts, the Uttarakhand forest department failed to save the life of a female elephant that was seized from a resort on High Court directions last year.

The condition of 53-year-old Laxmi turned critical since one week and her leg infection had spread into body’s other parts and was not in a position to stand. On court orders the state forest department had seized eight elephants from resorts located around the Corbett Tiger Reserve in August 2018.

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Ramnagar’s Divisional Forest Officer B.P Singh said, “We made all the efforts and many vets from India and even from abroad came and attended Laxmi. But, the leg infection spread in other parts of the body. The female elephant died due to infection on Wednesday morning.”

Passing a judgment on a Public Interest Litigation, the Uttarakhand High Court ordered the forest department to take possession of elephants used for commercial proposes by resorts located in Corbett Tiger Reserve.

In a first of its type operation, the forest department seized eight elephants from different resorts and stationed them at Aamdanda area of Corbett park. The forest department was looking after the seized elephants, but the declining health of 53-yearold Laxmi remains one of the major concerns for them.

Many forest officers were even advocating for providing euthanasia as the jumbo was in great pain. The postmortem of Laxmi was conducted at Aamdanda on Wednesday. After completing all other official formalities the burial of the jumbo took place. And it was an emotional outing for the staff as they took care of the elephant for about one year.

“The health of other elephants in our possession is fine, “claimed the Ramnagar DFO. Uttarakhand Forest Department in collaboration with Wildlife Institute of India (Dehradun) had recently invited South Africa’s renowned wildlife veterinary doctor Cobus Raath to provide further line of treatment for the captive elephants at Ramanagar.

Many veterinary doctors attended the female elephant. The Uttarakhand High Court in its judgment expressed shock over the illtr-eatment received by eleph-ants from resort owners- who were even using blind tusker for commercial activities.