Two Mahouts of Kaziranga attends the 'Gentle Training Workshop' for elephant handlers in Thailand

Kaziranga (Assam), November 10: In a first of its kind, two Mahouts of Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve were nominated and facilitated to take up international travel and attend the 'Gentle Training Workshop' for elephant handlers, owners and carers at National Elephant Institute Lampang, Thailand from November 6-8.
The Training was attended by Kasim Ali, Mahout of Kaziranga Range and Sanjeev Pegu, Mahout of Agaratoli Range, an official release stated.
Sonali Ghosh, Field Director of Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve said that, the three-day event organized by Human-Elephant Learning Programs Foundation (H-ELP) gave an introduction to the principles and practice aimed at advancing captive elephant welfare through an understanding of the most relevant scientific knowledge available and focused on positive reinforcement techniques.
"The key trainers and facilitators were Andrew McLean, Portland Jones of the H-ELP foundation and Bhaskar Choudhury of Wildlife Trust of India. Positive reinforcement means adding a stimulus to the environment to increase the frequency of behavior. As the aim is to increase specific responses or behavior, positive reinforcement applies gentler and softer methods of training using reward systems. Traditional elephant training tends to focus on correcting unwanted, or undesired behaviors. Positive reinforcement has a more constructive and rehabilitative psychological impact on the elephants and their relationship with their caregivers by significantly reducing stress, pain, and fear," Sonali Ghosh said.

She also said that, learning begins for elephants the moment it starts to interact with people and surroundings after birth, the release stated.
"Positive reinforcement has been used for generations of training animals. If it is introduced appropriately, the learning experience for an elephant is improved drastically. During the training, practical demonstration on sequence of verbal and signal training was exhibited. Desensitization was demonstrated in elephants as well to painful or fearful experiences which is useful for working with dangerous animals and conditions in later life," Sonali Ghosh said. (ANI)