No trace of dwarf elephants

[Loki]

The quest for 'dwarf' elephants, whose existence is a long-held belief of tribals of Agasthya biosphere near here, seems to be proving futile after a recent exploration by forest department failed to come across any evidence of the presence of such creature.

The search for the smaller type of pachyderm — Kallana as tribals call them — received a renewed interest after a wildlife photographer claimed to have seen a herd of them during a trek a few months back. Saly Palode had come out with a picture of a five feet high cow elephant with all the features of an adult and brought it to the notice of wildlife authorities.

"We have made enquiries based on reports. So far, we have not come across any evidence to establish the existence of that type of an elephant," chief conservator of forests (wildlife), Gopinathan, said.

Saly, however, is not ready to accept the official version asserting what he had seen and snapped was a truly grown up elephant and not malformed creature as the officials claim.

"It was part of a herd of three. They had all the features of adult elephants, depressions on their head, big flapping ears and tuskes," he said, adding that he had been tipped-off about the appearance of herd on the slopes of the Western Ghats by the tribals. "The herd had three elephants. One of them had died a few days back near a tribal settlement. The officials were informed of the casualty. Overruling the tribals' claim that it was a dwarf, they burnt the carcass after rushing through the post-mortem," he said.

"Couldn't they have preserved the carcass for a detailed scientific examination since it has been a long-held claim of the tribals that the smaller types of elephants make occasional appearance in the area?" he said. It was after this incident that Saly set off to trace the three remaining elephants and came across them after a long patient wait of several days, he claimed.

[xmorph]

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