Gentle giants and Mahuts who attended the elephant camp were forced to retreat from a nearby river after a wild elephant made its way to the camp here on the first day of the camp on Thursday.

The mahuts have reportedly taken their elephants to a nearby river so as to bathe the elephants in the morning. However, the joy short lived as a tusker from a nearby forest cover entered the river and crossed it in order to approach the elephants.

The arrival of the male elephant forced the mahuts to cut short the bath early and run away back to the camp.

“Only a few of us managed to stay with the elephants. Some ran leaving their elephants,” said one of the Mahuts.

He further added that the elephants were confused as there were no one to guide them. “People were running in fear and this confused them further,” he pointed out.

Forest officials who rushed to the spot used crackers and raised noise to scare the tusker away. But it had managed to come inside the camp with ease and left only after entering the camp.

A forest official said that the elephant had ventured from a nearby forest in Kandiyur and Nellimalai. “This pathway is a regular route for wild elephants. And this being there mating season, we can expect more visits in the coming days as male elephants would identify the smell of female elephants easily,” he informed.

However, he stated that the department has provided enough safety measures in the camp. “We have deployed staff 24/7 and we have equipped them with fire crackers and alarm vehicles to chase away wild elephants. We have also installed watch towers to monitor wild animal movements in the vicinity,” he claimed.

Notably, farmers from Thekkampatty had reportedly protested against the setting up of the camp there as it attracts wild elephants that destroy the crops.

However, the mahuts said that the destruction caused by the wild elephants are reactions to human actions. “Some years ago an elephant ventured the camp but moved away after sniffing the smell of humans on the elephants. They tend to attack only when we shout and hurl things at them,” said A.Karim Set, who has been a mahut for more than 30 years.

“If we don’t disturb them, they will come and go. It is a rarity that male elephants attack female elephants,” he adds.