THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Captive jumbos in Kerala will find themselves the topic of interesting studies in the days ahead with the newly-formed Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU) establishing a research centre dedicated to the pachyderms. The Centre for Wildlife Studies and Research on Captive Asian Elephants is one of several research units planned by KVASU and will be established at Pookkode, Wayanad. ‘’We have the largest number of captive Asian elephants; around 3,500, of which 700 are categorised as captive. But little research is being carried out. The centre aims at high-end studies related to the pachyderms,’’ said Dr Sethumadhavan, academic consultant and officer on special duty, Directorate of Entrepreneurship, KVASU. In a way, KVASU will be following the footsteps of other countries that already have high-end research on elephants on their agenda. For instance, the US, although not a natural habitat for elephants, has approximately 230 jumbos, all surviving in zoological parks and places such as the Disney Animal Kingdom. ‘’The US has initiated a variety of research programmes on the animals,’’ Sethumadhavan said. The Centre for Wildlife Studies and Research on Captive Asian Elephants is funded from a Rs 100-crore grant issued by the Central Government to the university. The Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), which donated several of its facilities for establishing KVASU, did have a Centre for Elephant Studies, but the new research centre is expected to be an improvement on it. The Rs 100 crore grant will be used to set up five schools and a number of research centres.
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