M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, May 8: How to distinguish a female elephant from a male one?
This question was not asked by a tourist visiting the Betla National Park.
It was in fact asked by one of the members of the National Tiger Conservation Authority’s (NTCA) advisory committee Shailesh Prasad, retired PCCF, who was on a four-day official visit to the Palamu Tiger Reserve (PTR).
Chief conservator of forest and field director of the PTR Kumar Ashutosh said, “The NTCA member was keen to know as to whether forest guards, trackers etc here are acquainted with the right kind of distinguishing features that identify any elephant either a male one or a female one.”
Ashutosh said our boys knew but the NTCA member did a good job by giving them useful and easy tips for identifying a female elephant and a male elephant.
Tusk is a feature most important but the forehead or head for that matter means much in classifying any elephant gender wise.
Height, size and weight too matter to the gender of the jumbos, said Ashutosh.
Deputy director South division of the PTR Kumar Ashish said, “We take utmost care to see the elephant-human conflict remains a low key affair and the PTR management has this strong conviction that locals living in and around the PTR have care and concern for this wildlife elephant which always gets into the news by trampling humans to death, damaging or destroying their pucca or mud walls, eating stock of paddy, damaging standing crops and vegetables.”
