dehradun to prevent any possibility of elephants catching the coronavirus infection uttarakhand forest department has barred all mahouts those who work with ride and tend to an elephant in the state from going out of the limits of the reserve corbett or rajaji in which they are currently deployedspeaking on the matter rajiv bhartari chief wildlife warden of uttarakhand forest department told toi as a precautionary measure we have decided to restrict the mahouts from moving out of the reservesthis is being done to protect them and wild animals from coronavirus the mahouts are also being closely monitored for signs of any infection the official addedthe state has 26 elephants tendered by as many mahouts and majority of them are from assam the two tiger reserves corbett and rajaji have 16 and 6 elephants respectively the other four private jumbos are under the custody of state forest department as per a high court order also more than a hundred wild elephants are present in the state along with other wild animals like tigers leopards and deer among othersadditionally all tourism activities are suspended inside the national parksreserves from midmarch to keep all the animals protected from the virusany sick employee will have to undergo necessary medical tests to ensure that they do not have covid19 bhartari saidmeanwhile sanitisation drives are also being carried out at the elephant camps of the two reserves we have started sanitisation of elephants and their camps at dhikala and kalagarh for tigers and other wild animals we are still mulling upon ways to keep a close watch on them and track their health status said rahul director of corbett tiger reserve who uses only his first name