Hyderabad: A simple device, designed using high-strength woven belts as restraints to limit the movement of captive elephants used in wildlife rescue operations in Maharashtra, has resulted in elimination of painful injuries on the legs of pachyderms caused by traditional steel chains used as restraints.
Industrial strength belts, capable of handling loads of more than 5 tonnes, are being used on the legs of elephants. These belts, connected to a shackle, are linked to steel chains that afford the animals some space to move. “Though the elephants we use are trained, as with all captive elephants, these ones which we use in operations to tranquilise wild animals including tigers, are tied to chains. But in the past, the chains were wrapped around the legs directly. It was quite common for the elephants to develop wounds because the chains would begin biting into their skins,” Dr Ravikant Khobragade, a wildlife veterinarian working in the Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve in…