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The Ethnography of Captive Elephant Management in Nepal: a Synopsis

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The Ethnography of Captive Elephant Management in Nepal: a Synopsis Gajah 34 (2011) 32-40 The Ethnography of Captive Elephant Management in Nepal: A Synopsis Piers Locke University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Author’s e-mail: [email protected] Introduction Nepal may not have seemed like the most obvious choice of location for this ethnographic kind of In 2001, with the help of my research assistant Satya research, since its captive elephant management Man Lama, I embarked upon an anthropological practices are not nearly as well known as those study of captive elephant management in of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand, and Nepal. This has been a long-term programme perhaps also since the number of captive elephants of ethnographic research entailing participant is so small (236 registered as of 2011). However, observation, semi-structured interviewing, the presence of the government elephant stable, survey data, photographic documentation, or sarkari hattisar, as an integral component historical investigation, and textual translation. of the national parks and wildlife reserves of My doctoral fieldwork additionally involved my Nepal’s lowland Tarai region, and the Khorsor own apprenticeship as an elephant handler at the Elephant Breeding Center at which captive born Khorsor Elephant Breeding Center in Chitwan, elephants are trained, made Nepal a particularly where the handlers explained that I could never attractive field site. Since 2001 I have made four understand their life and work unless I experienced successive research trips totalling 20 months of it for myself. Khorsor is also the site at which we fieldwork. In what follows, I introduce the world shot the documentary film Servants of Ganesh, of Nepali captive elephant management and which concerns the training of a juvenile elephant briefly summarize a few of the key issues I have called Paras Gaj (Dugas & Locke 2007). addressed in my research. As a social anthropologist, I had been surprised The hattisar and the use of captive elephants that regional traditions of captive elephant management had not yet been subject to The government elephant stables were the primary ethnographic investigation. For elephants focus of my doctoral research. They are the retain considerable religious, symbolic and location for a community of expert practitioners even politico-economic significance in South with a culturally distinctive occupational sub- and Southeast Asian countries, where ancient culture. Rituals of sacrificial appeasement and traditions of animal husbandry remain important veneration are an important part of stable life, for modern purposes of elephant utilization. I especially at Khorsor with regard to elephant found support for the rationale of this programme training, which entails a period of separation of research in Richard Lair’s book (1997), in and disciplined clean-living for the principal which he writes: “The scientific and technical trainer and his elephant (Locke 2007). Ritual and disciplines of biology, forestry, veterinary institutional life in the sarkari hattisar is shaped medicine, animal husbandry, and law are by Tharu tradition, even though this ethnic group obviously essential in managing domesticated indigenous to the formerly malarial Tarai no elephants. Less obviously, the crucial caretaking longer exclusively staffs the stables of today. function performed by mahouts and owners Originally sponsored by the Kings of Nepal, requires the entry of humanities such as social and recruiting Tharu men through networks anthropology, as well as more arcane subjects of kinship and community, the stable was the such as comparative religion, social history, location for the capture of wild elephants for linguistics, etc”. trade and tribute. Later, during the rule of the 32 Ranas from the mid 19th to mid 20th centuries, Hindi term phandi, the contemporary phanet, as the hattisar was maintained to facilitate royal chief of an elephant’s care staff derives from the hunting expeditions (rastriya shikar), at which historical phanet as an elephant capturer. foreign dignitaries were hosted to hunt tigers, rhinos, leopards and bears (Locke 2008, 2011). Of course, Nepal exhausted its stocks of wild Then in the 20th century, Nepal’s captive elephant elephants for capture long ago, and as a signatory management apparatus was deployed in service to the Convention on International Trade in to the new agendas of conservation and tourism. Endangered Species (CITES) since 1975, Nepal is prohibited from purchasing elephants from As a result, the sarkari hattisar became an organ abroad (although there have been gift exchanges of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife of rhinos for elephants from India, Thailand, and Conservation (DNPWC) within the Ministry Myanmar). This lack of legally available elephants of Forestry. Since the early 1970s, the era of necessitated a captive breeding programme to the national park, captive elephants have been sustain Nepal’s population of working elephants used for anti-poaching patrols, large mammal (private owners who procure elephants from the monitoring, conservation programmes, and also Sonepur Mela and elsewhere in India circumvent nature tourism. However, it was the Tiger Tops this legal obstacle by arranging for elephants to safari resort in Chitwan that first offered tourists be ‘gifted’ in exchange for a cash donation). This the opportunity to view tigers, rhinos and other was initiated with the founding of the Khorsor wildlife from elephant back. Established by Elephant Breeding Center in 1986, which has John Coapman in 1963, Tiger Tops preceded the had an impressive record of success since its first establishment of the (Royal) Chitwan National birth in 1991. In fact, as a result of the number Park in 1973, and maintained close relations with of juvenile elephants awaiting training, Khorsor the elephant staff from the government stables. now facilitates the training of two elephants at a time. Thus, whilst wild elephants are no longer Today, whilst government elephants are available captured, at Khorsor the phanet can still play for the use of tourists at some of the sarkari a similar role in the training of captive born hattisar, which have become tourist attractions elephants. To be a phanet who has successfully in their own right, the majority of the jungle trained a juvenile elephant is a prestigious elephant ride business is managed by the private achievement. sector, mainly in Chitwan, operating either in the community forests of the buffer zone, or for the Whilst a phanet outranks a patchuwa and a few resorts with special licences, inside the park mahut, he is not the sole driver of an elephant. itself. In Chitwan, this has led to two parallel A patchuwa is named after his primary function, elephant-keeping traditions; one based on the which is the task of cutting grass or branches Nepali three-man care system, the other, at the from trees from inside the parks and reserves resorts in the gateway town of Sauraha, based on the Indian two-man care system (Hart & Locke 2007). Ranks and roles in the Nepali elephant stable In Nepali government stables (Fig. 1), as well as the Chitwan facility of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), and those few safari resorts with park privileges and sizeable stables, each elephant is ideally tended by a three-man care team. This comprises a mahut, or stable cleaner, a patchuwa, or grass-cutter, and a phanet, or elephant driver. Closely related to the Figure 1. Misty winter morning at Khorsor. 33 of the Tarai, typically part of the early morning some Tharu men to rise to the class of landlord, hattisar routine (Fig. 2) preceding daytime above tenant farmers and landless labourers in grazing between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm. the stratified society of the Tharu (Locke 2011). This may entail him taking on driving duties with the assistance of his mahut, leaving the stable at Above the raut comes the daroga, whose dawn whilst the phanet helps prepare the men’s responsibilities are traditionally akin to his morning meal. superior the subba, or stable manager. As one’s hakim, or boss, one must show deference to one’s A new mahut will begin his apprenticeship subba, who is responsible for the discipline of by assisting the senior elephant handlers or staff, the health of elephants, communications hattisare, with menial tasks like the preparation with the veterinarians and wardens of the of dana (known as kuchi in India), which are DNPWC, and the provisioning of food and grass parcels containing unhusked rice, salt and resources for both humans and elephants. A molasses given as nutritional supplements and tekhadar, or contractor, arranges to supply this as instruments of reward for reinforcing good food, and a stable may also have a khardar, or behaviour (Fig. 3). It is significant that the word administrative officer, responsible for issuing dana refers to a religious gift, for in some sense salaries and keeping records. the hattisare are feeding a god (the elephant representing an instantiation of the Hindu deity Nepal’s government stables exist in a network, Ganesh). With regard to a mahut’s duties it is including remote jungle patrol posts to which important to appreciate that over time the basic elephant-handler teams are assigned. As such, responsibilities of everyday elephant care are and bearing in mind its previous administrative shared between the members of the ranked team autonomy before it was incorporated into the of mahut, patchuwa and phanet; they all drive an DNPWC, the sarkari hattisar has traditionally assigned elephant. also had a co-ordinating officer, the adikrit subba, or head of the elephant section. Earlier in The hattisar is of course more than merely the 20th century there were two adikrit subbas, an aggregate of elephants and their handlers. one for the west and one for the east, but after Above the phanet come the managerial ranks of the retirement of Sabilal and the death of Tapsi, the hattisar. In the contemporary stable, a raut it was decided to continue with just one adikrit.
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