Captive trained elephants taking tourists around a reserve forest. File picture

Calcutta, Sept. 19: Shakuntala could have lived happily ever after with Grandik in Armenia. But Komala will.

The six-year-old from Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary lost out to Komala from Mysore Zoo because matchmaker Bengal took longer than the elephants to rise from slumber.

Shakuntala is among 76 elephants bred and being reared in captivity in the reserves of Bengal.

They are breeding fast and the government is finding it increasingly difficult to afford so many. A forest department official said: ?We have to spend a lot of money on the elephants, and cannot use them effectively unless they are about eight to 10 years old and around six-foot tall. A lot of manpower is also essential to grow and train them.?

The elephants live in Jaldapara, Buxa Tiger Reserve and Gorumara National Park. Jhargram has two specially trained kunki elephants. These are used for patrolling forests, taking tourists around and capturing wild animals.

The forest department official said at least 14 out of the 76 in its custody ?can be sent elsewhere?.

But the Bengal government, which is flooded with requests from other states and abroad to hand over some of them, is yet to take a decision.

The official said: ?Individuals are not allowed to exchange animals against money, but governments can. The idea is to sell some of the baby elephants and use the money for the others.? But proposals from several states and abroad are ?pending? with Writers? Buildings.

The Central Zoo Authority wrote to the chief wildlife wardens of Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Jharkhand saying Delhi had decided to gift an elephant to Armenian President Robert Kocharian and sought to know the possibility of ?gifting a captive born female? between six and eight years old.

During his visit to India when Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister, Kocharian had apparently discussed the possibility of taking a female companion for Grandik, a resident male of Yerevan Zoo in Armenia.

A senior official of the forest department said the Bengal government had been told about the availability of such elephants in the state. Shakuntala was named among the most eligible. ?However, we did not receive any response,? the official said.

Komala, who is seven-and-a-half years old, would be in Armenia next month. Bipul Chakrabarty, the scientific officer of the Central Zoo Authority, told The Telegraph: ?The Karnataka government responded faster than Bengal, and so we are happy to send Komala to Armenia. She will be airlifted from Bangalore by October 15.?

Four officials from the Mysore zoo ? a vet, a range officer, a supervisor and an animal keeper ? will accompany Komala to her new home and stay there for a month, by when she is expected to get acclimatised.