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Dr.V. Krishnamurthy | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1929 (1929) |
| Died | 2002 (aged 72–73) |
| Occupation | Veterinarian |
Dr. Vaidyanathan Krishnamurthy (1929–2002) was anIndianveterinarian,conservationist andelephant expert. He has governed theMudumalai andTheppakadu elephant camps. He is popularly referred to as Dr.K, Elephant man or Elephant Doctor (யானை டாக்டர்). He has extensively written articles on the topics of conservation and elephant physiology, and is considered to be a pioneer in the development of Elephant Rejuvenation Camps. He is a member ofInternational Union for the Conservation of Natural Resources and Asian Elephant Specialist Group.
Dr.V.Krishnamurthy was born and brought up in the erstwhileMadras Presidency.[1] He graduated from theMadras Veterinary College and started his career as a Field Veterinary Assistant Surgeon in 1952.[2] Upon the creation ofAndhra State in 1953, Krishnamurthy was transferred toKambam, Madurai District where he served till 1957.[1]
Krishnamurthy is known for his activities in elephant conservation and suggested darts with chemical weapons as the safest and most efficient means of capturing wild elephants.[2] He is credited with having raised living standards ofcaptive elephants across Tamil Nadu.[3] From 1953 to 1956 he performed post-mortem on 18 elephants, out of which 12 had been killed by poachers. He suggested theGovernment of Tamil Nadu to introduce the system of Temple Elephant rejuvenation camp, where elephants domiciled in temples are sent back to the wild once a month every year, which is now followed as standard procedure. A considerable feat was the capture of the 'makhna' elephant which killed 15 people in the states ofTamil Nadu andKerala.
Dr. V. Krishnamurthy has been on a short-time scholarship to theSmithsonian Institution,Washington, U.S. and conducted several workshops on captive elephant management. He had considerable expertise in hand rearing of orphaned elephant calves and was involved in the creation of astudbook record of captiveAsian elephants. WhenIain Douglas Hamilton, attended a seminar with Krishnamurthy at theMudumalai sanctuary and found the elephants crowding around in response to his voice, he remarked, "I would love to exchange places with you."[citation needed].[1]
After his retirement, he joined the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) as Project Officer and actively took up assignments on Radio Collaring of Wild elephants for the study of their migration. He was also actively involved in Asian Elephant Special Group (AESG) as a Steering Committee Member. Dr. Krishnamurthy was on a long list of committees for wildlife conservation. He was Senior Technical Consultant to the Asian Elephant Research and Conservation unit of the Centre for Ecological Studies at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
TheGovernment of Tamil Nadu made Dr. Krishnamurthy an honorary warden of theNilgiri Hills.[3] TheGovernment of Kerala recognised his contributions with a certificate of merit in 1989. In 2000, Krishnamurthy was awarded the Venu Menon Allies Award for Animals Welfare.[3]
Tamil writerJeyamohan made Dr. Krishnamurthy one of the titular characters in his collection of short stories called "Aram" (lit. Virtue or Justice), with the story titled "Yaanai Doctor" (யானை டாக்டர்) (lit. Elephant Doctor).