Elephant care and management have been considered as a male bastion. Now, a woman has become the manager for the first time in the 47-year history of the Guruvayur Devaswom’s Punnathur Kotta, one of the largest elephant camps in Kerala.
C.R. Laiju Mol has received the keys of the elephant camp from former manager V.C. Sunil Kumar. The camp, which was started in 1975 with 21 elephants, presently has 44 elephants, including 39 tuskers and five female elephants. The camp has about 150 workers, mostly mahouts.
Management of elephants is, however, nothing new for Laiju Mol. She grew up listening to stories about elephants. Her father Raveendran Nair and father in-law Sankaranarayanan were mahouts of the Guruvayur Devaswom. Her father died 27 years ago after a bus hit him when he was taking an elephant of the Devaswom for parading. Her father-in-law was an eminent mahout who had managed tusker Ramankutty and a winner of Anayottam multiple times. Her husband Prasad too worked as mahout for a short period.
As manager, she will take care of the welfare and management of elephants, their parading, the duty of mahouts and their wages and welfare measures. In addition, she will take care of the Gokulams (cow camps) of the Devaswom at Kaveedu and Vengad.
