Mela shikar

Definition of Mela shikar

From the elephant glossary Section: capture

Famous Surin Mahout Phu Yai Salangam cathing elephants with lasso, Surin, Thailand. Photo: Ban Ta Klang elephant museum

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Records about Mela shikar from the Gajah Glossary at https://www.asesg.org/PDFfiles/Gajah/23-01-Glossary.pdf Mela-shikar (Hindustani): [also: Kyaw-hpan (Burmese), peti shikar; see also: Phand] (Shand 1996:38,150-1 51 ; Latt 7997 :7 | 4,7 48,27 4,223,251 ; Daniel 1998:21 0; Lahiri-Choudhury 1999:459; Hall 2000:35) Method of elephant-capture-originating in Assam, India, using nooses by men mounted on trained elephants; a method of catching single elephants, one-by-one.

M. Philip Kahl and Charles Santiapillai, Gajah Elephant Glossary, Gajah nr 23 (2004), Journal for Asian Elephant Specialist Group

Mela shikar is a traditional method of capturing wild elephants for captive use. These methods get employed in Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia and in Assam in India. The process involves lassoing a wild elephant from the back of a trained one, in India called a koonki.

Three distinct reasons make the Mela shikar method a safe one.

It is completely selective. It usually targets carefully studied and selected animals, preferably the younger, more pliable ones.
The death rate is low, since comparatively few elephants are caught at one time with sufficient manpower to take care of the captives.
Mortality during Mahouts hip and training is low, because all personnel engaged are highly skilled.

Capture and taming of elephants in Congo, 1936.

Reference list Koehl, Dan, (2024). Mela shikar. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 20 September 2021 at https://www.elephant.se/index.php?id=129. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Records about Mela shikar from the Gajah Glossary, https://www.asesg.org/PDFfiles/Gajah/23-01-Glossary.pdf
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mela_shikar

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Categories glossary | capture

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