Tusker returns to Dubare camp after travelling 4K km over one year

Madikeri: Kusha, 28-year-old tusker, has returned to Dubare foresttwo days back, after aimlessly wandering about 4,000 km over a period of about one year,leaving forest officials as well as wildlife enthusiasts surprised.The tusker had the history of troubling villagers by destroying their precious crops in Siddapura and Dubare regions and attacking humans on several occasions. Following pressure from the villagers the State forest department had captured the 28-year-old tusker in the year 2016 from Chettalli near here and it was caged along with other elephants at Dubare Elephant Camp for taming. After he was tamed, he was put to routine work by theforest department for over three years. One day in 2019, Kusha while grazing in the nearby forest had gone missing. It had gone in search of a mate. According to officials, elephants return to their camp three-four days after mating (musth in local parlance) with cow (female elephant). But Kusha did not return to the camp even after a year andwas found with a mate in Dubare itself.

Again Kusha was recaptured and retamed in Dubare camp. Following ahue and cry and ethical questions over Kusha being separated from hismate and the intervention of the thenminister and environmentalist

Maneka Gandhi, the forest department released it into MooleholeRange of Bandipur Tiger Reserve, more than 150 kilometres from Dubarelast June.

But after one year of trecking nearly 4,000 km the tusker

was spotted in Dubare, its familiar environs. It must have taken six monthsfor him to cross Bandipur and reach Wayanad in Kerala and cross the Kabini rangeto enter the Nagarahole National Park.

From Bandipur, he must have entered the Nagarahole Tiger Reserve through the Thithimathi-Maldare route to reach Dubare. His movement wastracked by project scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India(WII) at Dehradun. In December last year, the WII scientists had

alerted the Dubareforest officers that Kusha would soon be reachingDubare. Forest officials say that elephants areintelligent and can sense their familiar territory from a far off place. Elephants are known to migrate across 350-500 sq. kmannually. Interestingly, when Kusha was released into Kabini afterradio-collaring, many wildlife enthusiasts were not happy with thefact that he was released in Bandipur, a territory that is unfamiliar to him. Now Kusha has proved their fears wrong and has returned home.Kushalnagara RFO BShivarama said that Kusha is normal and feeding andcovering territories with the herd and the department is monitoring its movement.