Twins ;Rama and Laxman. It is difficult to breed elephants in captivity. As this centre is close to the Chitwan National Park wild elephants are allowed into the centre to night to assist( that's a nice word for it , isn't it! ) with the breeding project.
It takes 3 people to care for and train an elephant full time. The Mahouts ( trainers) direct the elephants by placing pressure behind the ears when riding them. If I recall correctly it takes 2-3 years to train an elephant and they live for 40-60 years. The are also considered a 'god' here and worshipped ( Ganesh) . I also read at the information centre that they burn their skin then massage it to hardened it! ouch! Although elephant training has been part of the Nepalese culture for years as elephants are used for work and transportation , not only in tourism , having read what is involved in the training I am not convinced how humane it is , ........perhaps I should have forgone the ride ?Update ( feeling guilty now) : I just scanned a project document that outlined that new more humane training methods are being introduced . Positive learning method with no restraints or enclosures . Positive and negative reinforcement, using pressure and release. ( no chains, whips or starvation ) Hmm.............I saw lots of restraints- chains.
Houses for the workers/ elephant trainers provided by the government. Very basic but not atypical of many village houses, admittedly in the poorer areas .
poor elephants! train them like you train children haha. wow the life over there seems much more difficult then i imagined..
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