The elephant and its two calves have been spotted in the automatic camera, fixed in the forest area as part of the wild life census survey.
“The footage shows a female elephant with her two calves. It is the first time in the STR for an elephant to give birth to twins,” said a forest official.
The officials said that they were monitoring the calves and the mother elephant’s movements closely.
“The calves look healthy and we are closely monitoring their movements,” the officials said.
Talking to TOI, S Sharavanan, Trustee, Wildlife Nature Conservation Trust (WNCT), said that only a healthy elephant could have delivered twins. An elephant is ready to have calves any time after 15 years.
During its life time, it will deliver at least 13 times. The calf’s gestation period lasts for 20 months. It is hard to tell if a calf is male or female until six months.
A few years ago there were two twin deliveries, one in Mettupalayam and another in Anaimalai Tiger Reserve.
In Mettupalayam, the twins go by Vijay and Sujay, and in Anaimalai Tiger Reserve they are named Aswini and Bhavani.