Baby elephant visited by Puneeth before death named after him in Sakrebailu

Bengaluru: The forest officials of an elephant camp at Sakrebailu in Karnataka have named a 2-year-old male elephant calf after late Kannada actor Puneeth Rajkumar.

Deputy Conservator of Forest (Shivamogga wildlife division), Nagaraj said that Puneeth had earlier visited the camp for three hours. The elephant was Rajkumar’s “favourite” at the camp, he added.

He further said, ” Generally, we name the calves after the names of Gods, but this time our staff and local public requested to name the calf after Puneeth Rajkumar as it was his favourite in the camp. We are really happy to keep his name.”

The actor last visited the camp in September as a part of shooting for a documentary about elephant conservation and spent some time with the calf.