Elephant mahouts in the central Kerala region will get roughly 25 per cent hike in their wages and allowances.

This follows a wage agreement between the All-Kerala Elephant Owners Federation and the All-Kerala Elephant Workers Union. The agreement is valid for the next two years.

Manoj Ayyappan, joint secretary of the union, told Business Line that the bata per day for ezhunnellippu (when elephants are rented out for temple festival work) was raised from Rs 1,600 to 2,000 for an elephant (an elephant has one, two or three mahouts, and hence this amount would be split among them). The owner would pay Rs 200 each daily for the mahouts.

On no-work days, the owner will pay Rs 700 per elephant to the mahouts. This is an increase from Rs 500. During the rejuvenation treatment and musth period, Rs 800 would be paid per elephant by the owner (that is, Rs 450 for the senior mahout and Rs 350 for the junior). The insurance coverage of the mahouts would be to the tune of Rs 5 lakh in case of death of the mahout.

Risky job

A mahout’s work is considered one of the riskiest traditional jobs in Kerala. Albert Jose, general secretary of the Elephant Owners Federation said three mahouts had died following attacks by their elephants in the last season. He also noted that since January last year, 36 elephants had died in Kerala.

There are fewer than 600 captive (tamed) elephants in the State. Of them, more than 400 enjoyed insurance coverage and hence their mahouts too were insured.

Jose pointed out that the law insisted that before taking an elephant out there should be valid insurance and medical fitness certificates apart from a microchip inserted on the animal. The elephants’ database kept by the Wildlife Department contained all the details, such as age and height, of each captive elephant in the State.

Wages and allowances vary widely in different regions of the State as the nature of festivals and other work vary a lot. The elephant workers’ unions are now trying to bring in a standard format.

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