Elephants find training an ordeal, a mammoth task for trainers

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MADURAI NOV.11 . "She is just like a kid who is reluctant to go to school, despite our best efforts to make her board a truck as part of a rehearsal for transportation to the Mudumalai sanctuary, where a month-long health camp for the pachyderms commences on November 16," said Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment officials, complaining about six-year-old Parvathi of the Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here today.

Since 10 a.m., the temple authorities, with the help of a veterinarian, were trying to train Parvathi and Angayarkanni to board a truck. But they did not make much headway.
The mahouts first offered groundnut cakes and sugarcane to cajole Parvathi to climb the truck. The animal accepted the delicacies without any fuss, but made a quick retreat when she was led to the truck.

The exercise was repeated several times. After an hour-long vain bid, the mahouts and their assistants lost their patience and resorted to `arm-twisting'. They twisted her earlobes many times, hit her with a stick and pulled the chained creature. But she stubbornly refused to get into the vehicle.

The treatment meted out to Angayarkanni was worse. The mahouts beat her with sticks in the legs and the trunk. She adopted a `one step forward and two steps back' strategy. Once she made a sincere attempt to climb the vehicle, but withdrew at the eleventh hour.

The elephants' ordeal came to an end only at 1.30 p.m. and they were taken to the `Yanaimahal', thanks to intervention by the officers. However, the animals have to get ready for the rehearsal tomorrow.

Elephants of other temples, including Koodal Azhagarkovil and Kalayarkovil, are equally reluctant to board trucks. The temple authorities have ruled out the possibility of using cranes to put the elephants in vehicles.

Campsite getting ready

Meanwhile, work is apace in getting the 15-acre site ready for the camp, Ashok Upretti, Wildlife Warden, Nilgiris, said.

Works, including erection of a solar fence around the site to keep wild animals away, would be completed in time. All beneficiaries were expected by November 15. About 40 temple elephants and 41 private jumbos were expected to participate. The sanctuary would remain closed, as its 26 members would also benefit from the rejuvenating camp, they said.

In Tirunelveli, the Nellaiyappar Gandhimathi Ambal temple elephant `Gandhimathi' is undergoing training in climbing steps on the temple premises. The Dhandayuthapaniswamy Temple administration will send its two elephants, maintained in the Periayanaki Amman temple in Palani town, to the camp.

Sumathi and Kasthuri, each weighing 5,000 kg, were getting rigorous training in boarding a lorry.

As the animals had been showing signs of resistance, forest trainers were summoned from Pollachi. After intensive training for the past two days, trainers have managed to tutor one of them to climb a lorry.

Bu the other one is lagging behind. Injections were administered to the elephants to make them immune to infection. Doctors checked their physical condition and issued fitness certificates.

Inner walls of the lorries by which the elephants would be transported were packed with buffer materials to avoid causing injuries to them during travel.