After the coracle ride and a big breakfast we walked down to the river bank to watch the elephants come in. Dubare is an elephant rescue camp. It is an interesting co-op of government, tourist, and native contribution.
I suppose it all starts with the native component. The mahout are the village people who have lived in these jungles and have trained and utilized the elephants for generations. Dubare obtains the other elephants that are added to their herds. Some are still considered 'rogue' and only the rangers and mahout can approach them. But most are completely domesticated. The most famous elephant in India, who is part of the royal Desshura festival at Mysore Palace, lives at Dubare. We got to see her twice. The guide told us that asian elephants eat around 100 kg of food per day. The government subsidizes 10 kg of food per elephant per day. The elephants are sent out into the jungle to graze for the rest of their food in the late afternoon and then are rounded up every morning and herded to the river to have their bath. During the day, the elephants help the mahout with their work, and are used as a tourist attraction at Dubare. There is a rink where people can take an elephant ride, pens where people can feed elephants, and demonstration areas where people can watch the elephants perform other elements of training. All of these activities are for a fee which goes towards financially supporting the camp. Our guide told us that they get upwards of 2000 visitors a day to see the elephants. As it was just our family and one other family there that day, they closed most of the activities. We still got to bathe the elephants and feed them.
This boy had walked his bike across a low part of the river and Gracie jumped in to help him hoist it up the stairs.
We waited at the banks for some time. There is no guaranteed arrival schedule. The elephants will wander deep into the jungle to graze and it takes a while to find them. The boys skipped stones and the girls visited the nearby squattie facilities.
At last, they started to file in starting with these cute babies. The mahout have vocal and physical commands they give to guide the elephants into place and to get them to lie on their sides. The elephants are then hand scrubbed by the mahout.
The first batch that came through were 'rogue' or 'danger' elephants. We just watched from the bank. But very quickly after that we were invited in to help. Our guide took our camera and snapped us some great memories.
Pretty sure all this spraying was done on purpose...
We were in the water with them for at least an hour. Then we were taken up to the feeding pens. The mahout use the government given food to make pellets of hay, seeds, and salt. For a fee we were able to take turns feeding them the pellets until they were all gone. We watched one of the mahout make a pile of pellets on the table. An elephant sidled up behind him, helped herself to one, and then - while still chewing the first - she started stacking the pellets from the table into a pile between her front legs. Finally, the mahout noticed and thwapped her on the head and moved all the pellets from the ground to the other side of the table. She reached her trunk around behind him and started making her pile again...
I wish I had asked what the chains are for. We were led to understand that the elephants roam the jungles at night. I wonder if it is for safety when all the tourists are in...
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