New Delhi: Baby elephants consume more than 330 kg of milk powder each, before they can be weaned away

Kancha is all of three months. His favourite game is to play a game of strength by pushing you with his forehead. And Kancha is the happiest when he has you on the floor, waving his trunk triumphantly.

Kancha is a baby elephant, separated from his natal herd when he was barely a few weeks old. The floodwaters in a forest stream had carried him away and Kancha was wandering alone near Saralpur in Kokrajhar district of Assam, when he was found.

Wildlife Trust of India’s (WTI’s) Wild Rescue team took Kancha to the Manas National Park, where he will be rehabilitated at the park’s elephant camp. The camp already has 24 elephants and when Kancha is old enough to feed on his own he will begin living with the other elephants here. Initially, Kancha was supposed to be rehabilitated at the Guwahati Zoo. But the zoo authorities lacked financial resources to look after this baby. So, it was decided to keep him at the Manas Elephant Camp.

Today, Kancha is a healthy three-month old and consumes milk made from more than three tins of milk powder everyday.

WILD RESCUE PROGRAMME

Kancha is the first calf to be rescued by WTI Wild Rescue programme. The programme rescues temporarily disadvantaged wild animals, which have been injured, maimed, or orphaned and provides treatment and rehabilitation to these rescued wild animals, In order to be able to successfully return them to their natural environment, Wild Rescue puts such animals back to where they belong in a scientific fashion, in line with national and international guidelines. WTI will soon be opening India’s first state-of-the-art wildlife rescue center at Panbari Reserve in Assam. Currently, WTI’s Wild Rescue team in Assam is taking care of three elephant’ calves, all from Assam.

Just like Kancha another calf was rescued from a tea estate near Kaziranga national park. The calf fell into a ditch on the tea estate, when the elephant was crossing the estate to cross into the forest area on the other side of the tea garden.

Last month, another calf was separated from its herd at Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, when the floodwaters carried him away. The calf was found in a critical condition with lacerated wounds.

“Wild elephant calves are orphaned for various reasons. Some are unable to keep pace with the moving herd during emergencies like floods, and get stranded. Occasionally, they fall into pits in coffee and tea plantations. At times they are rescued from poachers who catch them for illegal wildlife trade,” says Dr NVK Ashraf, coordinator of WTI’s Wild Rescue Programme.

The potential of rescuing wild elephant calves in the Northeast is more because of ecological and anthropomorphic reasons. WTI’s goal is to rescue, rehabilitate and release wild animals in distress. “In spite of all our attempts to release the elephant calves back to their mothers in the wild, we are sometimes left with no other option but to hand-rear them in captivity. Since the forest department does not have the money and know-how to hand-rear elephant calves, WTI has taken the responsibility of looking after these calves during their critical period of first 15 months and subsequently hand them over to the forest department,” Dr Ashraf explains.

Elephants can rarely be repatriated with their natal herd as by the time the calves are rescued, the natal herd has usually abandoned the calf. And unless the forest department is able to track the natal herd, the calf has to be kept at an elephant camp. In one case, during the last floods in Assam, the Wild Rescue team rescued an elephant calf that was entangled in water hyacinth and was returned to its natal herd within a few hours as the natal herd was tracked and the calf was accepted back by the herd.

WHAT DO THEY EAT?

Rescued elephant calves have to be fed on milk made from powdered substitutes, as powder milk is safer than locally available milk. Cow’s milk contains more fat and is, therefore, is unsuitable for elephant calves. Calves fed with cow’s milk are invariably susceptible to diarrhoea. The commercially available cow’s milk is also not safe as it is often reconstituted with non-milk products. Goat milk is an option but may not be readily available in sufficient quantities.

“Milk powder is used as a substitute as it is rich in iron. The advantage with milk powder is that it can be stored for long periods and can be prepared in sufficient quantities whenever required,” Dr Ashraf says.

HELP US FEED THESE BABIES

A week old elephant calf will consume at least one to 1.5 litres of milk during each feeding, while calves more than two months consume up to two litres during each feed. Since calves suckle their mothers every 60-90 minutes, the same frequency is followed in hand-rearing also. A young calf consumes between 12 and 15 litres of the reconstituted milk a day, made from almost three kg of milk powder. “Almost 330 kg of milk powder is required to hand-rear one elephant calf. The calf is expected to be totally weaned off from milk by 15 months,” Dr Ashraf says.

nce the calves reach an age when they can be weaned away from milk and can begin feeding on vegetation, they are handed over to the forest department, who rear them at elephant camps.

This means each calf drinks 60 one-kg tins of milk powder every month. Each tins costs an average of Rs. 85, translating into Rs. 1,500 per month. This is stretching the Wild Rescue Programmes’ finances to an extent that we may not be able to feed these babies.

We also appeal to animal lovers to donate generously to this effort. Every drop of milk helps.