'Kyata' may stay in crawl for life

The rogue elephant 'Kyata' which crushed his mahout Bora to death recently, has been sent to crawl – a place where wild and restless elephants are tamed – in Moorkal, within Nagarhole forest range. The nine year old Kyata after killing his mahout, had stood guard of the body for nearly 12 hours without food and water. It was only after many attempts that Bora's body was lifted and cremated.

Official sources said that the elephant is well under control with a new mahout taking care of him. "After initial days of taming and training to perform various tasks, the elephant may be kept in the crawl for life," an officer said.

DFO Biswajit Mishra, who along with him men, toiled for almost 36 hours before the elephant calmed down and, was sent to Moorkal crawl camp, said it was a 'one-off' incident that caused this amount of rage within the animal. "It is still considered a young animal. All elephants do have their moments of rage, but some learn to control it. Kyata, who did his mahout to death, was still a baby and hardly anyone would have guessed he was upset over something. His mahout, who would have known his behaviour in thorough sense, even he failed to see what was coming," he adds.

At crawl, the elephants are dealt in a manner that is a tad different from regular taming. Since this is a camp especially for untamed animals, the methodology adopted is stricter.