As many as 37 captive elephants in Kottayam received the free ration kits from the State government.
At a function held here on Sunday, Thiruvanchoor Radhakishnan, MLA, inaugurated the project in the district by handing over a food kit to tusker Kiran Ganapathi.
The project envisages offering assistance to the elephant keepers who are finding it difficult to feed the pachyderms in the absence of temple festivals.
As part of it, each animal was allotted food grain and fodder worth ₹400 a day for a period of 40 days. Each kit comprises rice, pulses, green fodder and palm fronds, among other things.
Besides pachyderms, cattle feed kits worth ₹2,800 have been handed over to 892 livestock owners in Kottayam, who are under home isolation. Made available by the Kerala Feeds Ltd., these were distributed through veterinary hospitals.
The project, funded by the Department of Animal Husbandry (DAH), is being implemented in the district at a cost of ₹30.89 lakh.
