Meet Khaleem: The celebrity kumki elephant of Tamil Nadu


Eight-and-a-half feet tall and weighing 5.5 tonnes, Khaleem, the majestic tusker at Anamalai Tiger Reserve is Tamil Nadu's star kumki elephant. With a broad head and a frame that is tall and imposing, Khaleem could almost pass for a poster elephant on tourism brochures - his ideal features conforming to what ancient Tamil texts describe as the requisites for a majestic elephant.

Khaleem was captured in 1972 from Sathyamangalam forests at the age of seven and trained as a kumki elephant. Wherever wild elephants stray into human habitation, damage crops and threaten humans, Khaleem is summoned to capture the wild pachyderm and take it to one of the three training camps in the state, which today are home to more than 50 elephants..................Read more

 

Source: The Times of India


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