Chennai, May 13 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin who is on an official tour to Ooty in the hilly Nilgiris district, visited the Theppakadu Elephant camp, fed the pachyderms and inaugurated housing facilities for the mahouts and Kavadis (caretakers) and interacted with them on Tuesday evening.

As Mr Stalin proceeded to the Theppakadu Elephant Camp, one of the oldest camps in Asia that dates back to the 1920s and tucked away amidst the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve (MTR), along the

banks of the river, he was accorded a rousing reception all along the route by the people, boys and girls, and held a road show and interacted with them.

Later, he was accorded a similar reception on his arrival at the Elephant camp, where he fed the pachyderms with sugarcanes, interacted with the Mahouts and Kavadis (caretakers) and took a

group photographs with them.

He also interacted with the Bomman-Bellie couple who featured in the documentary "The Elephant Whispers", which bagged the Academic awards.

Later, Mr Stalin inaugurated the Mahout Village containing 44 housing tenements for mahouts, caretakers and other staffs constructed at a cost of Rs 5.06 crore by the DMK government and

also launched the 15 km long Aerial Bunched Cable facilities set up at a cost of Rs five crore

from Thorapalli to Theppakadu coming under the MTR.

Mr Stalin also flagged off 32 All Terrain Vehicles for the benefit of forest department staffs bought

at a cost of R 2.93 crores.

An official release said as per the 2024-25 census, 3,036 elephants has made the forest areas as their habitats.

Moreover, 2,253 elephants have migrated to MTR and 440 of them have made it a permanent

habitat.

Since 180 tribal families were living in five interior villages of MTR, the release said there were possibilities of bare wires, passing through these villages, posing threat to wild animals.

Taking this into account, the State government in a pioneering initiative converted the bare wires

into Aerial Bunched Cables and launched it this evening.

Later, in post on X, Mr Stalin wrote "When he congratulated the Bomman-Bellie couple who were present at Academy Awards given to the documentary "The Elephant Whisperers", they requested that housing facilities shoud be built for the mahouts and caretakers at the Theppakadu camp".

"Today, I inaugurated the Mahout village comprising 44 government houses at the Theppadu Elephant Camp", he said.

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