Jumbo trio to be trained at Jaldapara - Mahouts try for 6 months, can't train for space crunch

Phulwanti at Jaldapara on Monday. Picture by Anirban Choudhury

TT, Alipurduar, Nov. 10: The three elephants that reached Jaldapara from Alipore Zoo yesterday would be trained in the national park after foresters found two senior mahouts from Assam could not train the trio in Calcutta even after almost six months.

The mahouts said Uttara, Mumtaz and Phulwanti could not be trained properly because of space constraints at the zoo enclosure.

The elephants reached Jaldapara yesterday evening and foresters had to struggle for almost four hours to get Mumtaz, 24, out of a truck. Uttara is 17 and Phulwanti is 21 years old. All the three elephants were sent to the zoo from Jaldapara.

Forest officers in Jaldapara have posted Paritosh Biswakarma as Uttara's mahout, Rafiqul Islam to train Mumtaz and Ajit Oraon for Phulwanti.

Last week, two elephants, Rani and Titi, were shifted to the Calcutta zoo from Jaldapara. Biswakarma was the mahout for Rani and Rafiqul looked after Titi.

"Because of insufficient space at the zoo we could not train the elephants properly. They have learnt to follow only few commands like, aage (forward), pichhe (backward), uth(up) and baith (sit)," said mahout Subhash Rava, 55, from Assam. "At the zoo, the elephants would be sent to the enclosure at 6am and sent back to the cage at 4pm. Once a mahout sits on the elephant, he can train the animal. We will start training the elephants after officials allow us," he said.

According to forest sources, Subhash and Rudhiram Rava, 51, the mahouts from Assam who tried training the three elephants at the Calcutta zoo, have together trained around 30 to 40 wild elephants.

Rajendra Jakhar, divisional officer, Jaldapara, wildlife division, said: "We have deputed three mahouts for the elephants that came from the zoo. The mahouts from Assam will stay here for a few days. Hopefully, two elephants will be trained soon. Normally, an elephant takes three months to get trained. We are keeping a watch on them so that they adjust here quickly. Once the training is over, we will send them with other elephants for grazing and patrolling. Later, they would be sent individually."

Jaldapara is known for training elephants. In the past five years, 16 rescued calves and two adult jumbos have been trained in the park.