The Kottur Elephant Sanctuary Rehabilitation Centre, home to 16 elephants, is being upgraded to become the world’s largest elephant rescue and rehabilitation facility once the facility is completed. It is spread across 176 hectares of forest and has the capacity to keep total 50 elephants in the future. Additionally, it was the first rehabilitation facility for elephants in India, built at an estimated cost of ₹105 crores. India’s oldest elephant, Soman, and its youngest elephant, Sreekutty, live here. It is best to visit the center between 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., as this is when the elephants are fed and bathed. You can watch mahouts feed the elephants in the center. And, it is permitted for visitors to go near and watch. Visitors can also participate in these activities by helping the mahouts. The centre also offers elephant rides. Researchers and students can study giant mammals’ behavior here in an ideal environment. Kottur is home to one of the world’s biggest elephant parades held weekly. During the parade, the elephants walk in a line holding the tails of one another with their trunks.
History
Forestry Department was planning to build an elephant park in 2006. Later, it was converted into an elephant rehabilitation center in 2007 in the high-water areas of Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary. In the beginning, the forest department had a number of objectives including rehabilitating tamed and forest elephants together in suitably protected habitats, conducting research, and ensuring the area was a suitable tourist destination. To become the world’s largest elephant center, the center is being upgraded to include fifty habitats enclosed by steel pillars and nets that allow elephants to be in their natural habitat, an elephant museum, a super specialty veterinary hospital, a research center,mahout training center, facilities for visitors, entrance plaza, administrative office, cottages, a convention center, amphitheater, more reservoirs, training facilities for baby elephants, a kitchen for cooking elephant foods, a feeding area, a post mortem facility for cremating, a paper making unit from elephant dung and quarters, and accommodations for mahouts to stay with their families.
Visiting Hours:
Best to visit the center between 9:30 AM and 11:30 AM
Contact Details :
+914722850827
Getting there :
Nearest railway station: Thiruvananthapuram Central, about 35 kms
Nearest airport: Thiruvananthapuram International Airport, about 40 kms.