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Workshops on Management Workshops give elephant handlers an opportunity to enhance their skills in precise and painless ways of controlling elephants and a range of other topics. WEPA organizes workshops together with local partner organizations, tailoring the content according to local needs. Workshops have thus far been carried out in Nepal. Due to positive feedback and a growing international demand, plans are underway to also start giving them in a few other Asian countries. A typical WEPA workshop lasts from three to five days, including lectures and practical hands-on work with elephants. The arrangements are carried out in co-operation with a local organizing partner, which can be a commercial company, a government body, or an NGO. Tailoring for Local Needs The planning phase for a workshop in a new location includes acquiring detailed knowledge on existing elephant handling practices, general information on elephant management in the area, and problems that the staff may experience and would like to have solved. This background information helps tailor the content of the workshop so that it will be as useful as possible for the participants. |
Topics of Workshops Lectures and practical sessions given by WEPA experts cover topics such as how to control elephants with maximal precision and minimal pressure, how to solve obedience problems, how to apply an understanding of the natural behaviour of elephant into improving the relationship of the mahout and elephant, and improved ways to use elephant controlling tools such as an ankus (bullhook) or a stick. Lectures by local experts can also be included in the workshop. For example, local experts on elephant health can be invited to give lectures on topics such as nutrition, vaccinations, parasites, treatment of injuries, and early identification of symptoms of diseases. Deeper into the Background: the Management Survey in Nepal In Nepal, an extensive survey was carried out as a co-operation between us and WWF Nepal in 2006. The survey documented handling practices and living conditions of elephants in all the government-owned facilities in Nepal. The survey was carried out by Ranjana Pajiyar of WEPA, who did both the collecting of data and analyzing of it, and the work was supervised by Helena Telkänranta of WEPA and Purna Kunwar of WWF Nepal. Such a detailed survey serves many purposes. One of them is to serve as a basis for planning the content of workshops given in Nepal. The survey will also be used in planning the development of other forms of co-operation with Nepali partners in the field of elephant management. |
The workshops consist of alternating sessions of theoretical lectures and practical hands-on sessions with elephants. The practical arrangements of the 2006 and 2007 workshops at Chitwan, Nepal, were largely carried out by Purna Kunwar of WWF Nepal, who in the picture is addressing the participants of the 2007 workshop. The posters on the left refer to an earlier lecture of the same workshop, in which Marc Pierard of WEPA discussed the effects of saddle designs on elephant healt in the light of various saddles used in African elephantback safaris.
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 Smiling after a day of work: some of the participants and organizers of a WEPA workshop in December 2007 at the Elephant Breeding Centre of Khorsor in Chitwan, Nepal. The fifth person from the right is Rameshwor Chaudhary, the Subbha (head) of the Breeding Centre. Counting from the left, the second is Marc Pierard, the manager of WEPA's field team of the year 2007 and one of the lecturers at the workshop; the third is Ranjana Pajiyar, WEPA's assistant and interpreter; sixth, Dr. Kamal Gairhe, the leading wildlife veterinarian in Nepal and another one of the lecturers at the workshop; seventh, Chandra Man Tamang, Subbha of the Elephant Breeding Centre of Bardia; ninth, Dr. Andrew McLean, WEPA's Head of Science and Training and one of the lecturers at the workshop; eleventh, Purna Kunwar, Project Manager for WWF Nepal, who carried out a large part of the practical arrangements of the workshop; thirteenth, Tuire Kaimio, an animal trainer who participated in demonstrating the training principles; and fourteenth, Buddhan Chaudhary, Subbha of the Elephant Breeding Centre of Koshi Tappu. |