The Kozhikamuthi Elephant Camp is a small tribal settlement in the Ulaandy range of Anamalai Tiger Reserve, near TopSlip, that is exclusively used for captive elephants to be trained and disciplined under the native Malasar tribes, who possess specialized knowledge and skill to train and work with Asian elephants.
The elephants here at the camp have rich experience in handling conflict situations that involve driving out wild elephants from crop-raiding and bringing under control, the stray elephants that create problem in human habitations.
“The Kumki elephants are usually male tuskers and the most notable one in the camp is Kaleem. Captured from the Sathyamangalam forests in 1972 and brought to the erstwhile elephant training camp at Varagaliyar, Kaleem has helped capture more than 25 wild elephants in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala over the past 20 years”, say local tribes.
The other notable tuskers in the camp are Venkatesh, Kapil Dev and Bharani. The captive elephants here in the camp are allowed to forage freely for about eight hours a day in the forest.
In the evenings, the elephants are brought back to the camp by the mahouts (trainer) and are given a bath by the cavadies (assistants to mahouts). The elephants are later fed with a man-made diet that consists of ragi, horse gram, salt and jaggery. This usually takes place in front of the visitors and tourists.
During the night, all captive elephants are given cut fodder. The mahouts on the job at Kozhikamuthi say, though they are satisfied to carry on the profession passed onto them by their ancestors, today some are keen on sending their children to towns and cities to take up some work. If this trend continues, very soon there will be a shortage of mahouts, said a local tribe.
