Elephant feeding

[Keerthy Rajagopal]

We found this mom and calf (not shown fully in the image), on the way to Kollegal from Dimbum. They were standing very near to the highway at about 4 in the evening. It was nice to see them so close, yet so relaxed. We took some snaps, and left them in peace after a few minutes.
And the little one was too shy to show his face. I have some more pics of them, but none with the face of the calf. He dug his head into a bush and dont want to meet his uncles .

EXIF:
Camera model: Canon EOS 550D,
Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250 II,
Mode: AV mode,
Focal length: 250mm,
Shutter speed: 1/250,
F Stop: 5.6,
ISO: 800,
Exp. Comp: -2/3 EV,
Metering: Center weighted average,
Crop: Full frame.

[Mrudul Godbole]

The side-on profile looks nice. Good to know they were feeding peacefully. Were there any cases of elephant-human conflicts in Kollegal? Thanks for sharing.

[Keerthy Rajagopal]

Thanks Mrudul. I dont know about Kollegal conflicts, but i heard of two incidents which happened at a place called Kongalli, which is about 20 kms from Thalavadi. One was a lady, thrown away by a female elephant, and she died in a week with a broken back, which happened quite some ago.
The second was a man stamped and left to die. This happened just a month ago. He was returning by walk from a temple, which is located inside the forest boundary, and the elephant charged from the bushes, stamped him, and ran away immediately. And the local forest dept people say that the particular female is seen roaming alone. May be draught was the reason for the elephant's behaviour, because waterholes were dry a couple of months back. Even now there is only little water left. The only hope for the elephants right now is a small tank built by the forest dept and filled every day from a bore well.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Tough situation as elephants need water. And they need clean water, else they will succumb to stomach disorders and die. With the rampant cutting of trees, stoppage of traditional channels that used to flow into water holes, cultivation of crops that are not suitable to the climate of the region and needing more water etc etc leads to a situation where waterholes don't have any water.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

While feeding the twirl of the trunk and placing of the fodder crosswise well documented. It may be consuming dry bamboo also under the circumstances stated above.
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Dinesh Kumar]

Very true Mr.Sabyasachi Patra, till now 2 elephants have died this month, in the area which keerthy had mentioned. Both had 2 types of worms in the stomach, we could not attend the post mortem done by the dept and no NGO's other than WWF was reportedly there. The situation is worse with rampant cattle grazing throughout the core and dirty water holes in the fringes, people even clean themselves at the some waterholes after natures call. We have some plans of using deworm medications with the help of a kin- who is a passionate VET, but its hard to get thru the bureaucracy. God help the wildlife.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Any idea who from WWF was present?

We somehow have to ensure that our waterholes remain unpolluted.

People use any waterhole available to defecate and clean themselves. In a hilarious incident mentioned by AJT Jonsingh, one guy cleaned himself in the waterhole and then after a few minutes a milkman came, drank a portion of the milk and drew water from that same spot and poured in the can to replace the milk. This milk man used to supply milk to a famous sweet stall owner.