Zookeeper Death: Attempts to Train Wild Elephant Largely Unsuccessful

Hyderabad: Negligence in training the 40-year-old elephant, Vijay, who was captured in the wild, could have resulted in the death of 23-year-old animal keeper Shahbaz at the Nehru Zoological Park on Saturday, said sources, adding that Vijay had been showing aggressive behaviour for the past 12 years.

He was caught in the Tirupati forests after he raided villages and brought to the zoo in 1996. Several attempts to tame him were in vain. The elephant’s aggressive behaviour came to notice in 2011, when it attacked a mahout, damaging his rib cage.

Senior zoo officials said that the elephant had been half-trained, was hostile in nature, and only friendly with a few people.

Three months ago, a special adviser from Chennai who visited the zoo had advised special training for Vijay to curb his aggression, officials said. However, no concrete steps were taken to move the animal to the camp.

Zoo curator Sunil S. Hiremath told Deccan Chronicle, “The elephant was chained for around 20 days after a musth incident took place. The animal turned aggressive and had to be tranquillised and leashed. In 2022, it was kept in a trench in the open to control it during the musth period.”

“Every precaution was taken by the department as per the advice of the experts. We hired four mahouts from Karnataka around a month back, who are trained in keeping the elephants, to look after Vijay,” Hiremath said.

Before the four mahouts were outsourced, the department lacked a sufficient number of trained personnel, with only one mahout on the rolls.

Against the backdrop of Saturday’s incident, the zoo is now planning to send the elephant to a training camp in Karnataka to learn human-friendly behaviour, although the talk had been going on for a month.

“We are discussing further prospects of sending the elephant to a training camp in Karnataka. As of now, only mahouts and senior animal keepers will be allowed near him. We have not been able to understand his behaviour over several years, but we think it is necessary to train it,” the curator said.

Mating was another issue in Vijay’s case, as his pairing with 60-year-old Vanaja, Asha (30-40 years) and Seeta (30-40 years) had not worked.

Experts, meanwhile, advised caution as the elephant may feel threatened by vets or keepers.