By Binod Prasad Adhikari

Sauraha [Nepal], December 29 (ANI): Mahouts brought elephants and their calves to an open ground in the tourist town of Sauraha to enjoy a picnic on the tuskers’ off day.
As a part of the annual elephant festival held every year in last week of December, the elephants on Friday were served with delicacies including their all-time favourite sugarcane to porridge cooked only in molasses amongst the itinerates.
“From early morning we cooked porridge of rice and molasses, varieties of fruits along with sugarcane, watermelon. It included only those items of elephants liking. As the humans go on picnic preparing all the delicacies of their linking, likewise, we also prepared it for the elephants,” Shyam Prasad Chaudhary, one of the mahouts looking after the kitchen of the elephants for the picnic told ANI.
Shyam Prasad along with his co-workers cooked kilos of porridge for the tuskers before they came to the ground for the picnic. The team made sure of the proportion of the food for the elephants and all the items were of standard with special care to those mother elephants who were set to attend the picnic alongside their off-springs.
“For each elephant we have allotted two-kilogram apple, a kilogram of carrot, grains – the all time supplement of elephant in 30 numbers (weighing about half an kg each), sugarcane weighing about 10 Kilograms, along with maize, dragon fruit, watermelon,
porridge obviously, and other items which they like,” Chaudhary told ANI.
It is a unique celebratory tradition of the Himalayan Nation which considers elephants as God- relating to Lord Ganesh, the Hindu god with an elephant head. It is believed that blessing from Lord Ganesh would give success in every task one attempts.
On Friday, the domesticated tuskers owned by the Chitwan National Park as well as private hotels were given a day off so that they all can take part in the picnic. On normal days, the elephants would work from 10 am to late afternoon touring through the forest area with tourists on their back.
But on Friday, no jungle safari involving the elephants from Sauraha went into the forest as they were busy with picnics and sun basking throughout the day.
Speaking to ANI, Jit Bahadur Tamang, a member of the Elephant festival organizing committee said, “We have organized this event to let people know about the food eating habit and liking of the elephants. They’re fed every day with the items of their need but today specifically those items liked by the elephants is provided on picnic day. Today we have brought all the elephants from Chitwan National Park numbering in dozens.”
The giant mammals need about 150-250 Kilograms of food on a daily basis. It costs about 75,000 to 1,00,000 Nepali rupees to house, feed and medical treatment of these captive elephants. There are an estimated 100 captive elephants in Nepal, including those used by the government for jungle patrols. An adult elephant costs up to Rs 10 million.
Held after a hiatus of three years, the latest edition of festival has made changes owing to the protest by the animal rights activists. The popular polo, football and races played by elephants has been kept off the schedule leaving the beauty pageant and picnic of
tuskers.
The unusual sport of elephant polo had remained the most popular event of the festival which has continued to be held every winter on the grass field of Sauraha. A scion of horse polo, the Elephant polo was first introduced in Nepal in 1982 after James Manclark started the pachyderm version of the sport with fellow enthusiast Jim Edwards. The first games were played on a grass airfield in Meghauli, which is located on the edge of the Chitwan National Park.
The game is played by driving elephants using trainers called ‘mahouts’. Initially, a soccer ball was used in the game. But after elephants started smashing the balls, they were replaced with standard polo balls. The sticks used in the game are made of bamboo and have a standard polo mallet on the end. This unusual sport had been attracting hordes of foreigners to the jungle safari destination of Chitwan.
In the polo game, nine elephants (four from one side, four from another side, and one referee), were each ridden by a mahout and a player. Animal rights activists have said that the mahout forces the elephant to run after the ball, threatening pain and punishment if the elephant does not respond accordingly.
In December 2018, the polo was held for the last time in Nepal which was marred by criticism and exposed animal cruelty to the world. Despite the absence of popular sports, its charm hasn’t faded out.