Bengaluru: After the Dubare camp tragedy in which a woman tourist and an elephant died in 24 hours, Karnataka forest department has started drafting a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) based on best practices in India and abroad to improve visitor safety and elephant management.Forest department sources said they are closely studying the century-old Theppakadu elephant camp on the banks of river Moyar inside Mudumalai National Park in Tamil Nadu. At Theppakadu, visitors are allowed only twice a day to observe elephant feeding sessions from a designated distance, while mahouts and caretakers exclusively handle and feed the animals.Forest minister Eshwar Khandre said Karnataka is seriously considering adopting similar practices at some, if not all, of the state’s 14 elephant camps.Khandre told TOI on Tuesday: “Visitors at Theppakadu are permitted at designated hours. They can watch food preparation and feeding of elephants by the mahouts in the presence of senior officials from a safe distance divided by barricades. Also, this has been hailed as one of the best and safest methods.”“We will incorporate a similar method in the latest SOP,” he said, adding that it is impossible to predict the behaviour of even trained wild animals at all times.This comes a day after the forest department imposed restrictions on tourist interaction with captive elephants in Karnataka camps. The new measures include a complete ban on feeding, bathing, and taking photographs with elephants from close quarters.
