What’s in a name, asked the famous playwright Shakespeare. Turns out everything, as is the recent case in point from Karnataka’s Sakleshpur where two elephants were captured. This particular rescue and rehabilitation operation caught the attention of a section of conservationists when they heard the foot patrolling team call out, "Mountain and Gunda are caught."
Earlier, “Abhimanyu”, “Bheema” and “Arjun”, the old camp tuskers who have been with the state forest department for a long time, had become of the centre of attention of photographers, conservationists and foresters. Now the names of troubleshooting tuskers are raising eyebrows among those who oppose naming the wildlife. However, there is another group that defends the staffers and says that naming the tuskers helps in easy identification for capture or to keep track of.
The patrolling team of the forest department in the state name these jumbos not only to track and keep a watch over them but also find it useful when it comes to sending SMS alerts to other staffers and keep movement of the herds.
Foresters posted in Hassan division have named the two notorious tuskers who were captured on Thursday. “The 20-year-old tusker was called Mountain not due to his size but because of the location where he was sighted, which was near a mountain the region. The other 30-year-old was named “Gunda” which means round and not “Goonda” or rogue. The ground patrolling team and watchers name these tuskers based on their looks, the location of their sighting or places where a death has been reported. This practise is done for easy identification, communication and even to capture them,” explained a senior official from the forest department
The staffers have also named the three radio-collared matriarch herd heads. The tuskers whose names are “Old Belt”, “Beetamma” and “Bhuvaneshwari” were radio collared in January this year. “So instead of saying, a herd led by radio collared on (particular date and number) is moving, for quick communication we call Old Belt is moving to the waterbed. Since her herd details are already known, communication is quick and action is swifter,” the official said.
Three other tuskers in the division which are being traded were also christened. They are identified as “Karadi” (because of its colour), “Bheema” (because of the size) and “Chota Bheem” (owing to its smaller size and named after the famous cartoon character).