Shunned by herd, elephant calf dies due to ‘trauma’

Nagpur: An elephant calf, which had got stuck in a marshy lake pond on June 10 and was intriguingly deserted by the herd, died on Monday. Though foresters had rescued the 4.5-year-old calf Aditya, it did not respond to treatment at Kamlapur camp in Sironcha forest division of Gadchiroli.
“According to veterinarians, Aditya was not responding to treatment due to psychological trauma it suffered after being abandoned by the herd,” said assistant conservator of forests (ACF) Shrikant Pawar.
There are 10 elephants in Kamlapur camp including 4 males and 6 females. Aditya was born to dominant elephant Ajit and Mangala. According to Pawar Aditya got stuck in the muddy pond on June 10 and struggled to come out, but failed.
“Contrary to the social behaviour of the pachyderms, none of the elephants came to the rescue of Aditya. We rescued the calf next day and started treatment as it was completely exhausted,” said Pawar.
“We started giving multi-vitamins. We also contacted several vets, local as well as from other states, and started treatment. Aditya was also kept with other elephants during the treatment, but they did not accept him. We fed nutritious food like bananas, bamboo shoots, wheat flour laddoos mixed with jaggery and rice pudding,” said Pawar.
On June 17, Aditya’s condition started deteriorating. The calf could not lift even his trunk. The calf’s health worsened further and it died on Monday morning.
“I’m surprised by the behaviour of other elephants in the herd. Normally, these mammals are very sociable and parents rejecting their babies is very unusual. When we took dead Aditya to its mother, she just touched it with the trunk and left,” said Pawar.
“It may happen when mother suspects the calf has deformity or just psychological distress of labour. But the dead calf was 4.5 years old and hence it is very difficult to comment,” said Dr Bhaskar Chaudhari, a vet with Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) working on elephants in Assam.