A tiny proboscis in india

 Kallana, the Kerala pygmy elephant 

    When we think of members of the Proboscidea family we often think of powerful, enormous beasts, such as African and Asian elephants, mammoths or mastodons, but the truth is that proboscideans of all sizes have existed, some even smaller than a human, such as the case of the palaeoxodon of Crete or the mammoths of wrangel, among these cases we can even list a mysterious species, which is said to roam in india, the kallana, a possible elephant, thank you all for reading, I hope you support and share this, without further ado, let's get started.

The mysterious pygmy elephant

    kallana, (Sanskrit കല്ലാന), is the name given to a small elephant believed to be found in the forests of the Western Ghats of the Indian state of Kerala, in the extreme southwest of India, being a creature mentioned since time immemorial by the natives of that area, especially by the famous Kani tribe.

   It is directly described as an elephant standing five feet tall, having unusual features such as its hairy tail that beats the ground, unusual folds of skin and an atypical shape of the spine, it is also said to be aggressive, its trunk, trunk and tail are large in comparison to its body, also having the forefoot a little larger than the palm of a human hand and the hindfoot a little smaller, These not only do not socialize or approach common elephants, but avoid them as much as possible, in other respects they are similar in appearance to Indian elephants.

Physical evidence 

    But could these animals exist? Well, as said before, mentions of this creature date back hundreds and even thousands of years, its existence being defended by the aborigines of the area but on direct evidence we have the following:

 In 2005, a wildlife photographer named Sally Palot and her assistant, Mallan, claimed to have seen and photographed a herd of five elephants in the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary, Located in Karamanayar near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Although a subsequent search was carried out it could not be found, the photographer had said that he was able to see a group when he checked the nearby areas after seeing the signs of Orana in the area, although he did not find anything, here is one of the photos.

Parallel to this case, an animal similar to the description of these animals was found dead in a nearby area, but it was not possible to investigate, because the body was cremated by officials.

Another photograph was taken in 2010, by photographer Ajantha Benni, who took a photograph of an elephant, believed to be Kallana, drinking water in a swamp, this was an elephant with horns, it was only one and a half meters tall and its tail, which was thin and had visible ribs, here is the photograph.

But the most shocking and partly shocking evidence came in 2013, when Sally Palot claimed to have seen and filmed a Kallana on January 18, 2013 in the Paruhipalli range of the Peppara Wildlife Sanctuary, Manithuki region, (I will leave a link to the video), After this, a scientific commission was appointed to go after the animal, this time succeeding and capturing a specimen, from which DNA samples were taken that were sent to the Forest Research Center in Wayanad for analysis, but these analyzes were never published, once again leaving the case a complete mystery.

Objectivity

   Well, if we are going to analyze specifically, it is not unlikely that a species could exist since there is currently a variety of pygmy elephant, the Borneo elephant, which is the smallest subspecies of all, being a case of the phenomenon of island dwarfism, Perhaps if Kallana existed it would be a morph of elephant adapted to the environment of the Kerala region, some scientists also suggest that these are nothing more than offspring separated from their group, a theory that is little accepted and has no value according to scientists.

Sadly, the lack of valid evidence and what happened with the inconclusive DNA tests leaves much more in doubt if this is really a real animal or just a mutation of some already known subspecies, we just have to wait and see if one day we find this animal again and finally solve the mystery surrounding the existence of the pygmy elephant.

[Reading links]

https://ml.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B4%95%E0%B4%B2%E0%B5%8D%E0%B4%B2%E0%B4%BE%E0%B4%A8

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kani_tribe

https://youtu.be/ujYBLZssaQk