The forest area of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the Nilgiris district is 681 square kilometers. This forested area is home to many wildlife, including elephants, tigers, leopards, bears, buffaloes and deer.
Theppakadu elephant camp in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve was established during the British era. The British used it to capture wild elephants and transport trees in the area. The Pakadu Elephant Camp is the oldest elephant camp in Asia. There are currently 27 elephants in this elephant camp. Five of them, Bama Indira Anna Kamatchi Mudumalai, is a retired elephant. The remaining 20 elephants worked as Kumki elephants, and the other two baby elephants were also taken care of.
The elephants in this ancient elephant camp were used as the Kumki elephant, repelling wild elephants from villages entering Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. They were also used to capture killing elephants.
Theppakadu Elephant Camp has 22 elephant units and 22 elephant cadres and serves as government employees in the forest department. When they came to villages in many places, they patrol the forest with kumki elephants and rejected wild elephants.
The work of Vettak Kurumbar Kurumbar Katunayakkar is in the elephant unit, and generations have been doing the job. They live in three villages at the Pakadu Elephant Camp. As there are no proper elephant herders’ houses in the area, the Tamil Nadu government built 44 houses in Theppakari elephant camp through the forest department, at the cost of RS. 56 million. These homes have drinking water facilities, toilets and children’s playground. Each house is named after an elephant who died while working in Mudumalai. This is the first time that 44 houses have been built for elephant herders in Mudumalai.
Elephant herders who work in Pppakad say they have been working as elephant herders for generations and live in houses without facilities before. Now, they are happy to have built all the necessary facilities for them.
The Forest Department raises awareness among visitors about elephant care by allowing visitors to watch elephants every morning and evening at Theppakadu elephant camp. The visitors were surprised and were delighted to see the domesticated elephant.
