Raipur: A herd of 18 wild elephants in Chhattisgarh’s Raigad district quietly retreated to the jungle like obedient children after being persuaded to do so by a ‘Haathi Mitra’ team, volunteers trained to deal with the pachyderms.
A video showing the pachyderm herd returning to the jungle in the Chaal forest range under the Dharamjaigarh forest division paying heed to the pleas by the ‘Haathi Mitra’ team has gone viral on social media, demonstrating the harmonious relation between the men and the wild elephants.
In the video clip, the elephant herd was seen emerging from the forest and surfacing at the Gadai Bahari- Auranara road close to a human habitation and then stopping suddenly following the call by the “Haathi Mitra” team to go back to the jungle and then retreating to the forest without making any noise.
“The members of the ‘Haathi Mitra’ team frequently come face to face with the wild elephants while monitoring their movements in the forest and hence, they develop a harmonious relation with the pachyderms who consider them not hostile to them over a period of time”, former chief conservator of forest K K Bisen who headed the project elephant in Chhattisgarh said.
He said that the elephants do not understand the human language but could realize the gestures if repeated again and again
