NAINITAL: Nine elephants from the Bandipur National Park in Karnataka reached the Corbett Tiger Reserve on Saturday after a journey of more than 2700 km. The elephants had started on their journey by road on Tuesday in a convoy of seven trucks accompanied by 16 mahouts. Three local trainers have been pressed into service to work with the mahouts. Dushyant Sharma , senior veterinary officer, who travelled to Bandipur National Park in Karnataka a month prior to the pachyderms' arrival to check their health conditions, told TOI, "A team of vets of which I was also a part, was travelling with the convoy to ensure that the elephants remain healthy. To avoid getting them stressed, nutrition and rest was provided to them including baths during regular breaks."The elephants will stay in an interim facility for three months during which they will get acclimatised to the new climate . After that, they will be used to patrol those areas of Corbett where vehicles can't go.Sources said that no one will be allowed to visit the elephants except caretakers and vets. "These measures are being taken to ensure that any infections which they might have contracted during this journey are diagnosed in time," said Sharma.A mahout who travelled with the elephants said that the travel was planned in two phases per day- 12 hours of driving and rest 12 hours of rest for both the staff and the pachyderms."We carried fodder for the animals including sugarcane, flour, rice as well as water and medicines along with us," he said.Earlier, the national park had 13 elephants for patrolling inaccessible areas but seven of these died following which it was decided to bring the new pachyderms. The tiger reserve had identified a dozen elephants to be brought in from Karnataka but one died, one contracted TB and another is too small to be transported to any other territory. Therefore, only nine pachyderms were transported, officials said

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