Occupation Veterinarian Role Veterinarian Name V. Krishnamurthy | Website elephantdoctor.com Years active [1923- 2002] Died 2002 | |
Dr. Vaidyanathan Krishnamurthy (1929-2002) (Tamil: வைத்தியநாதன் கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி) was an Indian veterinarian, conservationist and elephant expert known for his pioneering work in elephant care. He governed mudumalai theppakadu elephant camp and well known by the world as Dr.K or Elephant man or Elephant Doctor (யானை டாக்டர்). He has written the many journals related to the elephants and his last journal has been published in the London's Nature (journal). He is a member of International Union for the Conservation of Natural Resources and Asian Elephant Specialist Group. He is interested in the literature especially on Lord Byron poems.
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Early life
Dr.V.Krishnamurthy was born and brought up in the then Madras Presidency. He graduated from the Madras Veterinary College and started his career as a Field Veterinary Assistant Surgeon in 1952. Upon the creation of Andhra State in 1953, Krishnamurthy was transferred to Thekkady where he served till 1957.
Activities
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. He is credited with having raised living standards of captive elephants across Tamil Nadu. Dr.Krishnamurthy was the first person who done post-mortem for the elephants, from 1953 to 1956 he performed post-mortem on 18 elephants, out of which 12 had been killed by poachers. He suggested the Tamil Nadu Government to introduce Temple Elephant rejuvenation camp which is now successfully followed. A considerable feat was the capture of the `makhna' elephant which killed 15 persons in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Seminars and workshops
Dr. V. Krishnamurthy has been on a short-time scholarship to the Smithsonian 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 a stud book record of captive Asian elephants. When Iain Douglas Hamilton, attended a seminar with Krishnamurthy at the Mudumalai sanctuary and found the jumbos crowding around in response to his voice, he remarked, "I would love to exchange places with you."
Retirement
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.
Awards
The Government of Tamil Nadu made Dr. Krishnamurthy an honorary warden of the Nilgiri Hills. The Government 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.
Biography
Tamil writer Jeyamohan has included Dr. Krishnamurthy in his one of book "Aram".