Sonepore Elephants for Andamans Forests

In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, trained elephants are used to perform various kinds of activities like rolling and dragging of logs, rafting, loading and unloading on trucks and trolleys, etc., and are also sometimes used as prime movers of tramways. The Andamans Forest Department maintains a herd consisting of 95 e1ephants at present. Elephants have been purchased by the Andamans Forest Department from various sources in the past, but Sonepore has been the main source. Whenever elephants have been purchased from Sonepore, they used to be marched all the way to Calcutta where they bad to wait for shipment to Andamans. This used to take 2 to 3 months and sometimes more. In 1972, for the first times elephants were transported from Sonepore to Calcutta by trucks and were loaded on the ship within a matter or five days from the date of purchase. This obviously saved a considerable amount of money, apart from saving the idle time and inconvenience which the elephants escort party had to undergo on such occasions. Background information on the Sonepore fair and the method of selection, purchase and shipment of elephants is given here for the benefit of the readers.