As you may remember, Sunder is the young elephant we rescued from a temple in which he was abused and kept chained. Recently, international elephant experts Margaret Whittaker and Gail Laule traveled to India for a training workshop. Veterinarians and handlers at the elephant sanctuary where Sunder now lives learned the principles of the modern, humane “protected-contact” method of elephant handling, which uses rewards, not punishment, to encourage elephants to cooperate with humans. This has never been demonstrated in India before.

As you can see in these photos, slots were placed in the bars of the specially built corral to allow veterinarians and handlers to have access to the elephants’ ears, feet, flanks, etc., for inspection and medical treatment. The elephants learn to position themselves where the handler places the target sticks. They receive food as a reward for standing in the desired position, putting their feet through the slots, and so on. Sunder was a very quick study—he learned what to do even faster than some of his handlers did!

Animal Rahat veterinarians ended the workshop by holding a two-hour training session on this method for senior wildlife officials of different Indian states. The workshop was supported by the Project Elephant division of India’s Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change.