A HOLIDAY camp for elephants has opened in India’s southern Tamil Nadu province where the animals will socialise for seven weeks over good food and under expert veterinary attention to soothe their tempers ruffled by work-related stress.
Forty-five elephants attached to Hindu shrines and hermitages in the province repaired this week to the Mudumalai forest some 570km southwest of the provincial capital Chennai (formerly Madras) for a 48-day break to help them regain lost vigour and chutzpah.
“The elephants were brought in two batches in trucks from various temples and hermitages across the state where they perform ceremonial roles amidst great fanfare and ceremony,” a forest department official said.
At the rejuvenation camp the elephants will be fed massive quantities of sugarcane, coconuts and bananas laced with herbal medication and vitamins, and pampered with leisurely massages and oil baths.
Their diet would also include special rice, horse gram and turmeric, and mineral and liver extracts, officials said.
After months of walking on tarred roads, living on palm leaves and bananas and playing guard of honour during numerous temple festivals at which dreaded crackers exploded, each elephant had lost weight – but at the rejuvenation camp they will put on between 315-360kg.
The additional treatment they receive will also calm down the elephants ahead of a busy work schedule in the new year, when they will be the main attraction.
Elephants are symbols of prestige for temples across southern India, where the richly turned-out animals are frequently taken out in processions. Many individuals, too, own elephants, but are finding them a financial burden and handing them over to temples that are duty-bound to look after them.
The idea for the elephant holiday camp came from senior officials in Chennai following reports that many of the animals had started behaving badly by attacking their “mahouts”, or drivers, due to overwork.