CHENNAI: Come January, a group of young mahouts and kavadis from Tamil Nadu will fly to Thailand to be trained in scientific management of captive elephants. Thirteen bright personnel were selected from elephant camps at Theppakkadu in the Mudumalai Tiger Reserve and Kozhikamuthi in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve.
They will spend five days and six nights at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, and learn modern elephant care practices. Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary to the government, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Department, said,
“There is no manual or formal training given to these boys. The job of the mahout and kavadi should be made a little attractive and lucrative to retain some of the talent since the new generation is choosing to migrate to other jobs. Initiatives such as these would open a new chapter.”
Most mahouts and kavadis belong to traditional elephant-taming communities such Malasar and Irular. Currently, the maintenance of camps and training of elephants is done as per traditional knowledge. They have never been exposed to other elephant camps or elephant training centres that adopt best practices with a modern scientific approach.
Rs 50L allocated for training
“The concept of training and maintenance of elephants has evolved... For instance, simple things like picking early signs of an illness, a scientific way of checking foot nails, teeth etc. can go a long way in the overall wellbeing of the animal,” Sahu said in a G.O.
The Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang, Thailand, is an elephant camp known for its scientific approach to managing elephants. It has more than 50 Asian elephants and is at the forefront in treating sick elephants in Thailand.
As per the G.O., the government has allocated `50 lakh for the training. However, Chief Wildlife Warden Srinivas Reddy said the actual expenditure will be much less. “Our estimate was Rs 50 lakh, but the Thai centre agreed to provide training and accommodation for $5,000. The other expenses will be for flight tickets for the 13 mahourts and kavadis and four staff accompanying them.”