The elephant Nandan at the Chandaka-Dampara sanctuary. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, May 17: Nandan, once a rogue elephant kept in chains at the Nandankanan Biological Park for many years, is set to take up a new role soon.

Nandan is undergoing training to become a ‘kunki’ — an elephant used to prevent marauding herds from destroying crops and property — at the Chandaka-Dampara sanctuary.

The elephant had been chained and kept in confinement at the Nandankanan zoo after it killed its mahout in 1997. However, on October 25, 2010, its phase in captivity ended. The elephant was then brought to the ‘kunki’ training centre at Kumarkhunti in the Chandaka Dampara Sanctuary on the outskirts of the city.

Interestingly, the behaviour of the elephant has undergone a drastic change following the training and it has developed an affinity towards the jungle.

Five other elephants — Rajkumar, Mahendra, Sobha, Shankar and Jasodha — are undergoing the ‘kunki’ training at centres in Chandaka, Berhampur and Satkosia divisions. There are two elephants at each training centre. Dipen Kalita is leading the team of Kunki trainers. Six local mahouts and helpers are there for coordination.

While Rajkumar, Mahendra and Sobha were picked up from Similipal forests in Mayurbhanj district, Shankar and Jasodha are from Satkosia.

Akshaya Patnaik, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Chandaka Dampara Sanctuary, said: “The forest department first contacted its Assam counterpart to get one or two ‘kunki’ elephants from there. These elephants in Assam help the forest officials in chasing and controlling the wild elephants, which are out either to damage crops or property near human habitats. However, the forest officials in Assam advised their Orissa friends that it would be easy to train elephants locally to make them ‘kunkis’ instead of importing them from other states. Thus, the programme was started in three locations in the state. Except the death of one villager in Tikarpara area, everything was fine with the programme.”Although the training period is for six months and the term has already ended, sources in the forest department said the time has been extended so that the ‘kunkis’ are trained properly as per the original planning process. Nandan (24) and Rajkumar (9) have become true buddies and their trainers are hoping that the rouge elephant from Nandankanan Biological Park will soon get his lost freedom back and also learn all the abilities to move around in the forests.

A senior officer of Nandankanan Biological Park said: “The ‘kunki’ training centre at Kumarkhunti is just like a commando training centre for the elephants. They will ultimately help the forest people in managing the straying ones from the jungle.”

“An elephant lives up to 60 years. After the training, Nandan can work for 36 or more years. The ‘kunki’ training centre can also include more elephants in future. Forest department officials have realised that wild elephants could be managed best by ‘kunkis’,” added the officer.