Training for mahouts on Ganesh Chaturthi held at Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve

KAZIRANGA: On the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, orientation training programme for mahouts was held on Tuesday at the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve. Elephant trainer Parbati Barua and Bhupen Talukdar, Deputy Conservator of Forests (Retd.) were the key resource persons in the orientation training programme.

The training programme was organized with part funding support from Wildlife Areas Development and Welfare Trust (WADWT). The Field Director of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve Dr. Sonali Ghosh, IFoS said, “The orientation of the mahouts was towards tips and advice for feeding, bathing and general observations on elephant’s health”.

Dr. Ghosh further stated, “Elephants in protected areas such as Kaziranga are critical for patrolling in remote and inaccessible areas. They are well trained to cross over difficult terrain. The departmental elephants are respected and treated at par with all other work personnel and hence are also retired from service at the age of sixty (60).

Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve currently has sixty eight (68) elephants. Later in the evening, with an aim to improve the skills of the forest staff of Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve on rhino crime investigation, a training programme on Rhino DNA Indexing System (RhoDIS) was also held. Around 40 forest staff from Eastern Assam Wildlife Division and more than 10 officers attended the training programme organised at the Convention Centre in Kohora.

The training programme was imparted by National lead for Rhino Conservation, WWF-India Amit Sharma and Associate Coordinator - Animal Health from Brahmaputra Landscape, WWF-India Dr. Khanin Changmai. The training covered the basics of investigation procedures under the RhoDIS India program as per the Standard Operating Procedure approved by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), GoI, stated a press release.

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