In 2021, a wild elephant named Rivaldo, from the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve in the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu, was taken into “captivity” by the forest department following years of complaints from local residents. Rivaldo, they said, would wander through their villages and scour garbage bins for food.
Rivaldo, who was known for his gentle demeanour, was kept inside a kraal or enclosure in his home range at Vazhaithottam in Mudumalai. Mahouts had been employed to “tame” him so that he could be taken to the Theppakadu Elephant Camp, where he was to live the rest of his life in captivity.
Most media reports centred around the concerns of the local non-Adivasi settlers at Sigur in the Nilgiris, who wanted the elephant captured. I visited the kraal where Rivaldo was kept by the forest department. This offered me a chance to see up-close how his removal from the landscape not only affected him, but also the other elephants with whom he had formed strong bonds.
