I am talking about Chinna Thambi, the wild elephant that was tranquillised, captured, and tamed to become a camp elephant in Tamil Nadu’s Anamalai Tiger Reserve (ATR) in 2019.
Chinna Thambi was a crop raider during his carefree days in the Thadagam valley in the outskirts of Coimbatore. He would enter human habitation with the innocence and curiosity expected of a young elephant bull — he was 25 when he was caught — and eventually got used to the villages on the fringes of the forest.
I had 
Chinna Thambi’s mahout offered him large balls of ragi from outside. I took a step closer to the enclosure for a better look. It was the first time I was seeing a wild elephant from such close quarters. Then, he put out his trunk for food. I jerked back. The mahout said jokingly, “All he wants is food,” adding, “He’s almost broken; it’s just a matter of a few days.”
