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U.P.: Dudhwa authorities in Kheri to document mahouts’ experiences
Mahouts are always very close to their camp elephants, keeping tabs on their movements, health, behaviour and even on their sentiments and responses, said chief conservator of forests and field director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve, Sanjay Kumar Pathak
With a view to widening the database regarding study of behaviour of elephants, experiences of mahouts attending the Dudhwa camp elephants will now be documented.
On the occasion of World Elephant Day on Friday (August 12), chief conservator of forests (CCF) and field director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), Sanjay Kumar Pathak invited mahouts of Dudhwa to share their experiences in black and white while handling the camp elephants so as to create an offline record of their first-hand knowledge.
Talking to HT, Pathak said, “Mahouts are the persons who are always very close to their camp elephants, keeping tabs on their movements, health, behaviour and even on their sentiments and responses in the varying circumstances in the wild.”
“Even the elephants, who follow the commands of their mahouts, develop a mutual emotional bonding with them which helps mahouts assess their moods and behaviour in different situation,” he added.
“Only a mahout can aptly describe how an elephant under him responded to the presence of a big carnivore in a jungle or how they behaved while engaged in an operation during man-animal conflict, anti-poaching operations or routine patrolling,” Pathak said.
“Moreover, a mahout keeps well versed when his elephant is developing behavioural changes due to health issues or some other reasons,” he said adding “experiences of mahouts are a valuable source of knowledge about these mammoth animals.”
Pathak said when he took charge of Dudhwa as field director in 2020, he decided to document the experiences of these veteran mahouts like senior most Idris and Irshad so that not only the park authorities but the other mahouts also benefit from them.’
“The outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic affected the process restricting it to just online mode but this year on the World Elephant Day, we made an offline record of mahouts’ experiences,” Pathak said. “The exercise will also infuse a sense of responsibility among the mahouts that they are also a valuable part of wildlife management,” he added.
Dudhwa has a force of 27 camp elephants. Of them, 10 elephants were brought from Karnataka a few years back and the mahouts of Dudhwa taught them to follow commands in Hindi. ----Deokant Pandey
With active cooperation of World Wide Fund for Nature – India (WWF India), Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR) administration organised a feast and health camp for the Dudhwa elephants to mark the World Elephant Day on Friday.
Deputy field director, DTR, Prabha Kant Pandey said, “On the day, the camp elephants were decorated with attractive ‘rangolis’ on their forehead by their mahouts.”
“The camp elephants took part in a race between Bhadraula and Dudhwa and enjoyed food of their choice, including sugarcanes, pineapples, bananas, jaggery etc, arranged at Dudhwa, Salukapur and Chhanga Nullah base camps,” he added.
Veterinary physician Dr Daya Shankar from Dudhwa examined the camp elephants and provided them deworming and other required treatment. All camp elephants were found healthy and fit.
Pandey said the programmes concluded with a seminar on importance of elephants in ecology and human lives in which apart from him, Dudhwa warden SK Amresh and PK Verma and WWF coordinator Chandan Mishra expressed their views.
