Dipu & Chandu: Reel to real story at Kapilas zoo

Dhenkanal: The much-talked about Hindi movie Hathi Mera Sathi (1971) kind of friendship between Anil Chandra Das, an animal lover, and an elephant in the zoo at Kapilas in this district dates back to 2013 when the pachyderm was just a calf.
The elephant was rescued from a jungle in Bargarh district and brought to the rehabilitation centre of Kapilas zoo when it was just a calf. The Forest Department’s moment of happiness after getting a new guest did not last even for a day. The calf did not like to take food from any of the zoo employees as the environment was new to it.
When the officials were worried about how to feed the infant animal and were in a fix, the then ranger pinned hope on Anil Chandra Das alias Dipu, an animal lover of Deogaon.
The Forest Department entrusted the entire responsibility of taking care of the calf to Dipu who accepted the challenge happily.
From then onwards, a new life began for Dipu and the rescued calf, named Chandu. As the days passed by, Chandu has kept growing; so is the friendship between the two as well as their bonding. Five years have passed; the calf has now grown into a male elephant.
While the man-elephant conflict has been taking place every other day, here in the zoo, the bonding between Dipu and Chandu has become the talk of the town with the duo providing dawn-to-dusk entertainment to the zoo visitors.
“In no way is Chandu different from my other friends,” claims Dipu. Chandu always answers to his calls. Whenever he calls ‘Chandu’ by its name, it comes running towards him. Even today, it does not take food from anyone else, asserts Dipu proudly.
Dipu’s day starts with Chandu. He gives it bath twice a day – at 10 am and 4 pm. Then it is given rice, wheat, coconut, banana and straws stuffed with molasses. At night, it loves grass.
“The day when I cannot go to the rescue centre, it sheds tears. The next day, when I reach the centre I can at the very first look read the feeling that is writ large on its face. Even I can say when Chandu is ill and when it is well,” Dipu boasts.
At the time of illness, I never let Chandu alone; he expresses his wish to have me by his side. After getting well, Chandu lifts its trunk to give ‘blessings’, takes my hand in its trunk and keeps playing as long as it wishes,” Dipu recounts with a flourish. “We have seen elephants sacrificing their lives for human beings in cinemas. But I am realizing this in real life. Chandu is everything to me. I cannot live without it, nor can it,” says Dipu with a doleful expression.