Bengal to remember elephant along with staff on Forest Martyrs Day

Madhubala, a ''kunki'' (trainer) elephant which had helped curb poaching in north Bengal forests decades ago, will be remembered along with other forest department employees who are no more, on the National Forest Martyrs Day, a top forest official said on Monday.

Madhubala died at 90 of old-age ailments in Jaldapara Sanctuary on Sunday after serving the department for 50 years, the official said.

She had played a key role in curbing poaching activities in the Jaldapara area in the 1970s and also in taming wild elephants in all these years, he said.

In the 1990s, she had helped in the vaccination drive of herbivores in Jaldapara to prevent anthrax outbreak among rhinos.

Asked if the forest department will set up a memorial of Madhubala, who had become a favourite of wildlife officials over the years, he said, "If we start building such memorials, we will soon run out of space."

However, he said, the department will remember her services along with the contribution of other deceased staff of the forest department to save flora and fauna'' on September 11 on the occasion of the National Forest Martyrs Day.

The day is observed every year at various zones across the country.

According to forest department records, Madhubala was born in 1930 and bought by the department from the animal fair of Sonpur in Bihar in 1969. She had become immobile due to advanced age in recent time.