Days after Oscar for The Elephant Whisperers, Bomman And Bellie Get Another 'Trunk Call'

Days after The Elephant Whisperers won an Oscar, the tribal couple Bomman and Bellie featured in the short documentary are pampering another elephant calf. The animal was rescued from an unfenced well near Pennagaram in the Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu around five days ago.

Raghu, one of the two calves featured in The Elephant Whisperers, was orphaned after his mother was electrocuted in the Krishnagiri district in 2017. The calf was first taken care of by the tribal couple before it was shifted to other camps.

On Wednesday, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin felicitated the couple and gave them a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.

A day after they returned from Chennai to Theppakadu Elephant Camp in Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the Nilgiris district, the state forest department sent another elephant calf to be attended to by the couple.

After initial treatment, the calf was sent to Theppakadu Elephant Camp on Thursday evening where it reached early on Friday.

Bomman, who reached Theppakadu on Thursday morning, was happy to attend to the new elephant calf. He said that he would take care of the calf like his child. “That’s why I used to take care of any calf or elephant that reached the camp,” Bomman said.

Forest department officials said that the newly rescued calf was yet to be named. “We are now concentrating on the health of the calf. Once it’s fully recovered, we will look at naming the calf. Since Bomman and Bellie have experience, they will take care of this calf as well,” a forest department official in the Theppakadu camp said.

Bomman has been taking care of the elephant calf ever since it reached the camp and onlookers told News18 Tamil Nadu that he did not even have breakfast in the morning.

“How do you expect me to have food, when the calf is tired?” he asked the reporters in Theppakadu, who were waiting for his reaction after the meeting with the chief minister.

According to the forest department officials, the calf was treated in the Dharmapuri district for four days before being brought to the camp. “In the camp, the calf is being treated with glucose and other eatables to make it stable. Since it travelled for more than six hours, it looks tired,” an official from the camp told News18 Tamil Nadu.

Along with Bomman, Bellie too has been attending to the calf since Friday morning, while doctors have been monitoring it regularly.

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