Elephant Training Center or 'Elephant Kraal' is an elephant training center in Kodanad is adjacent to a mini zoo, run by the Forest Department of the Government of Kerala. Kodanad is the only elephant rescue and training center in Kerala specialized for rescuing and training stranded baby elephants from the forest regions across Kerala. Before 1977, elephants were captured from the nearby Malayattoor forests and trained at Kodanad. Capture of elephants was banned in that year and Kodanad center does not engage in capturing elephants any more. The Kodanad center now focuses on training elephants. Elephants are accommodated in the sturdy cage in a more humane manner, instead of being torture-based. Elephant kids might get a wash inside the cage. Elephant handlers, called mahouts, were often found to be inhumane in dealing with the elephants under their care. To sensitize them and to teach them more humane ways of managing the elephants, a proposal was made to make Kodanad a mahout training center also.

Kodanad also offers elephant safari to visitors. Kodanad is a ecotourism destination project supported by the Government of India. As a part of this project, Kaprikkad, a village lying 3 km adjacent to Kodanad on the river bank has been set up in 2006 for entertaining visitors in the most natural and environmental friendly way. It is a typical Kerala village with paddy fields and coconut groves in the vicinity. Beautiful, golden, sandy, clean and shallow beach , evokes irresistible temptation for swimming and sunbathing. Kodanad is a beautiful rural riverside village and a popular day picnic spot in the Ernakulam district of state of Kerala in southern India. Elephant rescue and care centre for central and southern forest region of Kerala is located in Kodanad. Kodanad is situated on the south bank of river Periyar, with its' river Periyar, forests, hills, temples, churches, elephants and animal shelter (mini zoo) - offers a complete holiday destination in Kerala.In Kerala, elephants are the most ornamental and auspicious animals and no festival or celebration is complete without an elephant procession.

The Asian or Asiatic elephant (Elephas maximus) is the only living species of the genus Elephas and is distributed in Southeast Asia from India in the west to Borneo in the east. Asian elephants are the largest living land animals in Asia. Asian elephant is divided into four subspecies such as Sri Lankan, Indian, Sumatran and Borneo. The elephant is distinguished by its massive body, large ears and a long trunk, which has many uses ranging from using it as a hand to pick up objects, as a horn to trumpet warnings, an arm raised in greeting to a hose for drinking water or bathing.

Asian elephants differ in several ways from their African relatives. They are much smaller in size and their ears are straight at the bottom, unlike the large fan-shape ears of the African species. Only some Asian male elephants have tusks. The Asian elephant has four toes on the hind foot and five on the forefoot. Led by a matriarch, elephants are organized into complex social structures of females and calves, while male elephants tend to live in isolation. A single calf is born to a female once every 4-5 years and after a gestation period of 22 months—the longest of any mammal. These calves stay with their mothers for years and are also cared for by other females in the group.

Elephants are extremely intelligent animals and have memories that span many years. It is this memory that serves matriarchs well during dry seasons when they need to guide their herds, sometimes for tens of miles, to watering holes that they remember from the past. They also display signs of grief, joy, anger and play. Recent discoveries have shown that elephants can communicate over long distances by producing a sub-sonic rumble that can travel over the ground faster than sound through air. Other elephants receive the messages through the sensitive skin on their feet and trunks. It is believed that this is how potential mates and social groups communicate.

Source: Wikipedia & http://worldwildlife.org

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