Bengaluru: Almost every day, we hear about conflicts between human-wildlife but here is a farmer who spends over Rs 2 lakh per month taking care of two old elephants who are not so healthy. He has also converted three acres of his farm into a rehabilitation centre for the animals, realising his childhood dream by doing this.
Shivanna, a farmer with 150 acres of farm in the Pichchaguntrahalli village of Malur, wished that he could buy an elephant when he was a child.
In the year 2014, when he visited the Thutukodi temple with his brother, Venkatesh, he found an unhealthy elephant. It took him nearly six months to get permission from the forest department to keep the elephant. Later, he found that the Gauri elephant of Nanjanagud was also not healthy and so he brought it to his farm. Now, Shivanna is caring for both of the elephants.
To keep the elephants healthy, Shivanna has built a water pond. The entire 3 acres area of the farm is covered with solar fencing to ensure that the elephants do not move out of the area.
According to Shivanna, the elephants are being fed six kilograms of fruits, 15 to 20 kilograms of finger millet, and 250 kilograms of grass. Grass is also grown on 3 acres of land exclusively for these elephants.
“The elephant rehabilitation centre is paying for the fodder. Every month vets from Bannerghatta visit the farm to check the health of the elephants,” he said.