Lakhimpur Kheri (Uttar Pradesh), Aug 14: The experiences of mahouts, who train and look after elephants, will now be chronicled to get a better understanding of elephant behaviour.
Chief conservator of forests and field director, Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), Sanjay Kumar Pathak has asked mahouts of Dudhwa Tiger reserve (DTR) to share their experiences while handling elephants in order to create an offline record of their knowledge.
Pathak said, “Mahouts are always very close to their elephants, keeping tabs on their movement, health, behaviour and even on their sentiments and response to circumstances. Even elephants, who follow the commands of their mahouts, develop an emotional bonding with them.”
He further said that only a mahout can 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, etc.
Pathak said when he took charge of Dudhwa as field director in 2020, he decided to document the experiences of these veteran mahouts so that not only the park authorities but other mahouts also benefit.
“The outbreak of Covid-19 affected the process, but this year, we are making an offline record of mahouts’ experiences,” Pathak said. (IANS)