About Dubare Elephant Camp

Elephants are Nature's masterpieces, created and perfected through 55 million years of evolution! Man has always been fascinated by this strange and mysterious animal, the largest creature ever to walk on earth since the Jurassic period! Elephants, despite their huge-size are also extremely intelligent gentle, sensitive and astonishingly submissive. These characteristics were exploited by man and he domesticated the Elephant, probably around 5000 BC. He used them in warfare, hunting, as a beast of burden and finally as an icon in his religion and culture.

In India, Elephants have become an integral part of mythology, religion and culture. Ganesha, the Elephant - headed God, symbolizes the Indian fascination and reverence for this majestic beast. The Indian subcontinent also happens to be a prime habitat for the wild elephant and man has always been in intimate contact with them since thousands of years. Even today, India is home for about 30,000 wild elephants, which is about 70% of the entire Asiatic Elephant population! India also has a large population of domesticated elephants - about 2000 of them, used mainly for religious and cultural purposes.

The Karnataka Forest Department has about 150 Elephants in various camps and Dubare has been historically an important camp. The Elephants for the famous Mysore Dassehra were trained here. But presently after logging operations have ceased, the Forest Department does not really know what to do with all its elephants! They (Elephants) have been practically retired except for giving some rides to odd tourists. At the same time, the Forest Department spends quite some money to maintain them and their mahouts.

At Dubare Elephant camp, a visitor can spend hours simply watching Elephants and of course, learning more about them. A trained Naturalist is at hand to explain the various aspects of Elephant history, ecology and biology. The visitor can not only observe and learn but also participate in various activities involving Elephants. .

Hotel Specifications

Accommodation

Visitors to Dubare Elephant camp can observe these gentle giants closely and learn more about their fascinating behavior. A typical visit to the camp would last for about 3 hours. Tented accommodation will be created at Dubare on the banks of River Cauvery. The overnight clients would go through all the day activities and some additional activities.

Dining

At an appropriate time during the above activities, visitors are brought to the old Forest Rest House to have some tea/coffee and refreshments. The Rest house is built in the year 1897! And is still used by Forest officers!

Recreation and Health

Elephant Grooming
Visitors can watch Elephants being given a scrub-bath in the River and also observe how oil is applied on their forehead, tusks and other aspects of Elephant grooming. It is touching to see how the Mahouts take care of them; just like their children.

Elephant feeding
Visitors can watch the food being prepared for the Elephants and how they are fed. They can even participate by feeding the Elephants themselves - for this visitors get some sugarcane, coconuts or bananas.

Commands
The Mahouts will then demonstrate the various commands the Elephants can obey. This is vividly portrayed, by making elephants perform some mock logging operations, like lifting, and stacking logs in a symmetrical pile. It is amazing how dexterous their trunks are; did you know that there are more than 40000 muscles in the trunk alone!

Naturalist
While visitors are going through all these activities, there will be a Naturalist who is explaining to them about all aspects of Elephant ecology, history, conservation etc. The visitor's interaction with Elephants will be as participatory as possible. Further, a leaflet giving interesting information on the same will be given to visitors.

Elephant ride
Finally, visitors will be taken on a 45 min- 1 hour Elephant ride into the Dubare Reserve Forest. Before, they get on to the Elephant; they can watch how the Howdah is actually tied on to the Elephant back.

Basic Data