‘Bachelor’s Group’ of jumbos heading towards Seshachalam hill range (State of Andhra Pradesh, India)
‘Bachelor’s Group’ of jumbos heading towards Seshachalam hill range (State
of Andhra Pradesh, India)
The Hindu
January 10, 2021
See link
https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/bachelors-group-of-jumbos-heading-towards-seshachalam-hill-range/article33545527.ece
for photo.
The three-member group of wild elephants from the Tamil Nadu forests, which
had entered Chittoor district a fortnight ago, is heading towards the
Seshachalam biosphere.
The group has so far made a march of over one hundred km – from Vellore
district (T.N.) to Vadamalapeta of Karveti Nagaram range in Chittoor
district.
An unusual phenomenon of the group, known as the Bachelor’s Group in the
Forest Department parlance, is that its movement is unheard of in the
present path of its march – from Chittoor Municipal Corporation limits to
the extreme limits of the Karveti Nagaram range.
Disciplined Herd
During its “jumbothon,” the group had rarely strayed into the agriculture
fields, but confined its movement through forests and gorges, feeding on
natural fodder and quenching thirst in water bodies inside the jungles.
Since a fortnight, the forest personnel are on the trio’s trail, deploying
drones and elephant-trackers.
On Sunday evening, the group, an adult male followed by two juvenile
tuskers, was spotted at Battikandriga beat of the Karveti Nagaram range.
Forest Range Officer Sivanna told The Hindu that the group was not creating
any problem to the farmers. “We expect that the elephants have an
inclination to move into the Seshachalam hills, using the connectivity path
towards the Panapakam,” he said.
The Chamla Valley and the S.V. National Park areas of the Seshachalam hills
hold an elephant population of more than 40.
Once the group enters the Panapakam beat, it would be right into the
Seshachalam hills, he said.
It is further observed that the natural faculties of smell will help the
pachyderms join their counterparts in the interiors. The movement of wild
elephants in Chittoor and Kadapa districts is being observed for the last
over four decades.
In the late 1970s, the Asiatic elephant species made its re-emergence at
the Kuppam tri-State junction. In the later years, two or three herds had
crossed into the Seshachalam ranges after a long march covering 200 km, or
more, through the Palamaner and Piler ranges in the western side.
Migratory Corridor
Again, the present herd from the T.N. forests moving towards the
Seshachalam hill range is said to be a first of its kind, as it has taken
an altogether new path through the eastern parts of the district.
It is also a harbinger of several jaunts of the jumbos into the Seshachalam
biosphere in the core area of Rayalaseema, besides “rejuvenating” the
erstwhile migratory corridor, extending the link as far as the Mudumalai
wildlife sanctuary and Bhannergatta forests of Karnataka.