Dehra Dun, September 29
It has been decided. “Arundhati’’, 80, will have to die. She was brought from Pilibhit and was trained to carry tourists on her back. She has been doing that uncomplainingly since 1980, a favourite of both employees and the visitors.

“It is with a heavy heart that I have approved administering Arundhati a fatal dose of injection. In a day or two, we will first give a dose of a tranquiliser and then a shot of potassium chloride to put her to sleep,” Shrikant Chandola, chief wildlife warden, Uttarakhand, told The Tribune.

The decision was taken after a panel of veterinarians agreed that the condition of Arundhati — she is the oldest among her kind in Rajaji National Park here — had become “hopeless’’.

Officials tried everything, even the traditional medicine, to save her, but it has not helped.

“There is no other way. She has no offspring but other elephants respect her for being the oldest among them,” said a sobbing Zahoor Khan, Arundhati’s mahout.

Arundhati was always a fiesty creature. Overcome by instant love, she had eloped with an attractive intruder-suitor from Nepal five years ago. Her escapade was short-lived. Leader-less, her peers and followers soon sought her out and forced her to return to her park.

An elephant’s life span is similar to our own. After 70-plus, Arundhati should have been happily retired and enjoying her twilight years.

But she kept working. It was about a couple of weeks ago that the crippling blow came — she got stuck in a swamp and, during rescue efforts, suffered multiple fractures on her right foot.

“She has not been able to stand up since then,” G.S.Pandey, director of Rajaji park, said.

On Saturday, she looked too weary, thin and gaunt, her eyes filming in death. Almost as if a new calling awaited her... Goodbye, girl.