Kuntalini tries out the new shoe at Jaldapara on Tuesday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

Alipurduar, Feb. 16: Kuntalini’s new shoe is the talk of the town, eh, Jaldapara.

The 51-year-old kunki today strutted around with the shoe on one of its legs, all strapped up with white cotton ribbons with “specially ordered” written on them.

Kuntalini is the first elephant in the country to own a shoe — advised by vets to protect its injured footpad. Elephant expert Parvati Barua said in Thailand, where work pressure of trained elephants is less compared to those in India, the animals were made to put on socks. “But the shoe is definitely the first in India,” Barua said over the phone.

Kuntalini is a kunki (trained elephant) of Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary (wildlife III division), 45km from here, and enjoys the reputation of a “hardworking forest employee”. “She is very sincere and is one of our hardworking employees,” said a forest worker.

More than a year ago, on one of its patrol, the elephant suffered an injury on the footpad of its front right leg when it stepped on a sharp piece of deer horn.

Profuse bleeding started and despite administering medicine, the wound did not heal completely. Every time, the elephant is taken out on forest work, the footpad suffers.

On instructions from the sanctuary’s vet Proloy Mandal, Buddhadeb Mandal, the range officer of Jaldapara East, designed the shoe for Kuntalini.

He contacted a local cobbler who took measurements and within two days completed the shoe which has a diameter of 130cm and a height of 12cm. The footwear is made of leather and adhesive with rubber pasted on the soles. After Kuntalini put on the shoe, the staff tied it up with cotton ribbons so that it did not come off while walking. At least two forest workers are needed to help Kuntalini put on the shoe.

Today, the elephant walked for an hour with the shoes on and seemed comfortable in it.

“During patrolling, before the elephant is made to put on the shoe, the wound will be covered with cotton and medicine. After returning from duty, it would be taken off, as open wounds are better exposed to air. In future, we will use this sort of shoes for any elephant that suffers injury,” said ranger Mandal.