A Last Trunk Call

Ganeshi at the Gorumara forest reserve after being ‘rescued’ a second time

aneshi's is a heart-rending story. The Nepal police shot and killed her mother on June 21. The ten-month-old cub became weak and got separated from the herd while it was entering Dalka forest on early June 26 morning. The cub was rescued and left near the herd the same evening. "She was very angry and upset when we rescued her. She just refused to eat anything. Since we had handled her, she smelled of humans, and we knew the herd would reject her. So we rubbed her skin with elephant dung before sending her back," said Kanchan Banerjee. At first it appeared that the herd had accepted her and the cub had found a surrogate mother. But on June 30 morning, Banerjee received information that a cub had been sighted inside a forest adjoining the army cantonment at Bengdubi. "It became apparent that the herd, which had crossed the Balasom river, had left her behind. There was no alternative, we had to recapture and rear her ourselves," Banerjee told Outlook.

The cub was rescued from the army area on June 30 evening and taken in Banerjee's pick-up to Gorumara forest reserve, where she joined four kunkis and four other cubs. Army officers at the base had suggested she be christened 'Sweet Sixteen' (after the 16 Field Ammunition Depot at Bengdubi from where she was recovered). But foresters said that mahouts and helpers would find it difficult to pronounce such a name, so the officers then suggested 'Ganeshi'. "She was weak, and after being rescued, she was very meek and obedient, not angry as she was when we rescued her the first time. It seemed that after being abandoned by her herd, she had resigned herself to living with her human captors," says Banerjee.

During the journey to Gorumara that night, she was administered ORS and fed plantain leaves by Banerjee. For a few days, Banerjee was hopeful that Ganeshi would survive, especially when she began tentatively frolicking with the other cubs. He had plans to train her to eventually ferry tourists and foresters as a department 'employee'. But then she went into a decline—deprived of mother's milk (the female elephants at Gorumara weren't lactating), pining for the herd, Ganeshi died on July 7.