Temple Elephants get their share of offerings, rejuvenating health camps organized in TN

Tamil Nadu, January 4: Animals have got their own share of blessings to the visitors in temples. Many temples in Tamil Nadu have witnessed elephants to give blessings to the devotees visiting the temple. To give proper care and protection to these elephants a rejuvenating camp has been organized under the pet project by late Chief Minister Jayalalitha.

 

The annual rejuvenating camp organized for elephants has been a tradition since a long time. Earlier there were five such camps organized by the official authorities to take care of these elephants. This 48 day camp will start from today. The camp is situated at the banks of Bhavani River at Vana Bhadrakali Amman Temple in kovai district of Tamil Nadu.

The elephants will undergo a check up as a prologue to the camp; they will be given special diet, medicated baths, vitamin supplements etc. The walls enclosing the camp have been provided with solar powered walls for the first time to ensure safety of these elephants from wild elephants from jungles.

This is considered to be the ninth year of the camp conducted to improve mental health and physical behaviour of all temple elephants. For those elephants that are unable to attend the camp here, instructions have been given to provide special food at their respective places and their health monitored by a local veterinarian. Special classes would be conducted to mahouts on giving the best care to these elephants.

The officials have also planned to give balanced diet with flattened rice, turmeric, salt, dates, jaggery, rice, horse gram, green gram and a variety of green fodder along with fruits and sugarcane to the elephants. Along with this a special kitchen, rooms have been allotted to the mahouts.

This pet project was started by the late Chief Minister Jayalalitha in order to take care of the animals especially those in temples like the elephants. These camps have been conducted and till now nine camps have been undertaken by the Tamil Nadu Governmnt.