Sakrebailu Elephant Camp near Shivamogga, which had remained closed since May this year, reopened to visitors on Saturday with enhanced safety measures for both visitors and elephants. On the first day after reopening, 534 people, including many children, visited the camp, among them several tourists from distant places, including Bengaluru.
The camp was shut on the instructions of the Forest Department following the death of a woman visitor at Dubare Elephant Camp in Kodagu district. On May 18, the woman died after being caught between two fighting elephants. The incident prompted the department to implement a standard operating procedure to ensure the safety of visitors and animals at all such camps.
At Sakrebailu, separate paths have now been laid out for the animals and the visitors. The animals’ area has been designated a red zone, which only staff are permitted to enter. Barricades have been placed to separate the paths, and visitors are no longer allowed to get close to the animals. As soon as the elephants enter the camp from the kraal area, they are taken to the Tunga River for their bath, with the public given adequate space to watch from a distance.
Earlier, visitors could get much closer to the animals and even had the opportunity to join mahouts and kavadigas in bathing the elephants. Such activities have now been discontinued.
On the first day of reopening, many visitors were already in queue to purchase tickets. The Forest Department has put up boards instructing visitors on the safety measures to follow, and officials are also making public announcements to reinforce these precautions.
Prasanna Krishna Patagara, DCF (Wildlife) of Shivamogga, told The Hindu that the SOP had been prepared with a focus on the safety of both visitors and animals. "There are separate pathways for animals and people. In the viewing area, there is a distance of about 30 ft between the animals and visitors. Besides that, there is a restriction on the number of elephants at the camp — there will be only eight to 10 animals on a given day. Even at the bathing area, certain restrictions have to be followed," he said. The department has also installed CCTV cameras across the area to keep a vigil on the movement of visitors.
