JOIN USIts playtime for elephants at Dubare camp
As many as 20 elephants in the camp are providing visual treat to the visitors by actively participating in various sports activities.
The elephants are being trained by mahouts and Kavadigas using signs, symbols and other forms of communications. Elephants game including football, one leg walk, circle play of elephant holding another elephants tail and others are literaly enthralling the audience.
The baby elephnat Ranjan (named after MLA Ranjan) is the cynosure of all eyes as it is an expert in giving obeisance to visitors and other adult elephants. The elederly elephant Gopi has been leading this team of elephants. Junior elephants were trained by the senior elephants of the troupe like Harsha, Vikram, Vijaya and Maithili which have the practice of participating in Dasara festival every year.
The wild elephants that were harming the agriculture land in the district premises were captured one and a half years back and were being trained since then. “The elephants are provided with sports training with the objective to entertain visitors as well as to make the elephants stay active throughout”, says DCF Kantharaj.
Along with it, the visitors are educated about elephants lifestyle like their food habbits, cleaning habbits and the like thereby trying to develop environment tourism, added Kantharaj.
He also informed that as the Supreme Court has banned the use of wild animals to transport wood, in temple Utsavs and circus, the tamed elephants are trained to sport with the intention to provide them necessary exercise.
Block Forest Officer M S Chinnappa said that these elephants are trained so as to adjust with other tamed elephants and also to ready them to particiapate in Dasara Utsav. The elphants are also trained to turn flexible enough so that it would be easy to treat them when they fall ill, says Chinnappa.
Mahout J K Dobi is the favourite elephant master who is looking after the elephant’s training session in the camp.