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Micro chip implants for temple elephants

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

for better protection: Forest department officials implant a micro chip on Lakshmi, elephant of the Manakula Vinayagar Temple, in Puducherry on Monday. Chief Wildwife Warden P. Devaraj (right), is in the picture.

PUDUCHERRY: High-end devices have come to the aid of Lakshmi and Ganesh, the two temple elephants in the Union Territory. Micro chip implants would now help tracking the elephants and prevent illegal trading of the animals.

On Monday, 17-year-old Lakshmi, belonging to the Manakula Vinayagar Temple, underwent the procedure for the micro chip implant.

The “rice-sized” chip was implanted behind her left ear.

“There are a lot of complaints of illegal trading of elephants from forests, mostly from Assam. To prevent this, the Government of India has decided to allot numbers to the elephants to help locate or trace them,” Chief Wildlife Warden P. Devaraj said.

The situation was especially difficult in States such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala as there were large number of elephants making monitoring difficult, he added.

“The 1.5 inch implant will not affect the elephant in any way. Using a scanner, the number assigned for the chip can be read. Through this chip, the location of the elephant and its entire history, including date of birth, age, height, weight and when the chip was implanted, can be obtained. This makes it easy to trace the elephants,” Mr. Devaraj said.

After Lakshmi, temple elephant Ganesh at Karaikal would receive the implant on Tuesday. Ganesh was a ‘makhna’, meaning a male elephant without tusks. “We have requested the Tamil Nadu Forest Department to help us in carrying out the implant on our elephants,” he said.

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