Kerala > Pathanamthitta > Konni
11 km from Pathanamthitta Town The Welcome Board The Giants having a good timeKonni is village township near to Pathanamthitta Town. The acres of thick forest with wild animals has now made Konni emerge as another tourist spot for safaris and trekking. The animals make the forest safari very exciting. The trek to hill top and the view from the hill-top gives amazing pleasure and sights. The Soman A young calf out for a walk A view of The premises The Old Training CageKonni is famous for the elephant trainning centre since ancient times. The elephants were captured from the dense forests of the western ghats/Sahyadri and brought to the elephant trainning cage at Konni. There these wild elephants are tamed and trained by mahouts specialized as elephant tainers. These trainers take the help of other tamed elephants.
The tamed elephants famous for rendering help to the trainers of the wild ones are
- Konniyil Kochchayyappan
- Ranji Padmanabhan
- Balakrishnan
- Soman
- Venu
- Rameshan
- Mani
The present members of Konni elephant training center are
- Soman
- Priyadarshini
- Meena
- Surendran
- Eva
Eva is the youngest member who is only 7 years old.
The elephant capturing at Konni traces back to 1810 A.D. The major elephant capturing locations include Mundom moozhy, Mannarappara and Thura. The elephant training cage which is present now was built in the year 1942 A.D. The wood of "Kambakam" was used for this. The present training cage has the capacity to train 6 elephants. The dimensions of the training cage are - Length of 12.65 Meters, Width of 8.60 Meters and a Height of 7 Meters. The elephant training cage and its premises comprises 9 acres of land.
The elephant capturing was officially stopped in the year 1977 by Govt: Circular though it was actually stopped many years prior to that.
Presently the elephant training cage is a major tourist attraction. It houses a History Meusium as well. The elephant training centre functions as an elephant welfare centre. The elephant calfs estranged from the herd and found lost in the forest are brought here and are provided with medical facilities and proper care.
The details of Konni Elephant Training Centre and Training Cage are mentioned in the articles of the famous "Aithihyamaala" by Shri Kottarathil Shankunni. "Aithihyamaala" is referred as one of rare collection of articles of Kerala History.
Konni Elephant Training Centre has to its credit of gifting the Elephant "Samyuktha" to the Republic of Portugal as a mark of friendship and co-operation with the Republic of India.
How to reach: Konni is on the Main Eastern Highway (Punalur-Pathanamthitta-Muvattupuzha Highway/SH-08) and is very well connected to major towns and cities of Kerala through Pathanamthitta.
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