Prisons dept's grass route to fill jumbo bellies, own coffers

AFTER SERVING people through its jail kitchens, the department of prisons and correctional services is now looking to do something even grander: feeding jumbos.

- SHAN A S @T'Puram

The department is planning to grow Hybrid Napier CO5 grass, a cross between elephant grass and bajra grass, on 40 acres of land on the Nettukaltheri open prison campus — it is being cultivated on 10 acres of the prison land at present — and sell it to the Kottoor elephant sanctuary that is located 4km away and houses 16 jumbos. At present, the cultivated grass is given as fodder to the livestock reared by the inmates and sold outside to farmers.