Elephantine irony by Nanditha Krishna

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CreationsElephantine ironyNanditha

Krishnahttp://www.newindpress.com/sunday/sundayitems.asp?id=SEC20030830125912&eTitle=Columns&rLink=0Ganesh

Chaturthi is back, and with it the most lovable deity ofcontemporary Hinduism,

larger and more beautiful year after year. Thepublic celebration of the

festival has spread to the whole country. HugeGanesha images are installed on

street corners, highways and in remotevillages. “All obstacles, whatever

they may be, are rooted out byworshipping Ganesha,” is the blessing

necessary to any society.Ganesha derives all his qualities from the elephant.

The elephant is hugeand strong yet gentle, qualities of Ganesha. The elephant

is perceived tobe wise: Ganesha symbolises wisdom and knowledge. The

elephant’s sharphearing translates into Ganesha’s ability to listen

and acquire knowledge.The elephant has a long trunk (nose) and a keen sense of

smell: Ganesha’strunk can sniff out good and evil. The trunk can hold

objects, makingGanesha a great scribe. His mouse vehicle represents the speed

with whichthe elephant can move. The elephant clears every obstacle, making

himVighneswara, dispeller of obstacles. The elephant is attached to his

mothertill he is a teenager: Ganesha is always a young boy (Tamil:

pillai),attached to his mother Parvati.Ganesha is not the only revered

elephant. The eight directions are guardedby eight elephants: Airavata, Anjana,

Sarvabhauma and Vamana in the east,west, north and south respectively, and

Supatrika, Pushpadanta, Pundarikaand Kumuda in the northeast, northwest,

southeast and southwestrespectively. The Gajashastra has an elaborate story of

how elephants couldonce fly, but lost the ability when they disturbed the

penance of Varanarishi and were cursed by the sage to be grounded. Airavata is

also thevehicle of Indra, king of the heavens.Admiration for the animal’s

size and strength led to its association withroyalty. There is a story that a

wild elephant bowed low beforeChandragupta Maurya, confirming his destiny as

emperor. Chandraguptamounted it and won several battles, guided by its wisdom.

The elephant’slove of water led to the custom of elephants pouring

coronation water overthe king. Elephants pouring water also flank Gaja Lakshmi.

To invoke rain,the elephant was anointed with sandal paste and taken in

procession. Theelephant symbolised the birth of the Buddha, representing both

Maya’s dreamof an elephant entering her womb and the royal prince who

renounced theworld. Elephants appear frequently in art and were the symbols of

severaldynasties, including of Ashoka. The elephant was probably domesticated

bythe Indus Valley period, where it appears on the seals. In Mamallapuram,the

elephant appears as a monolith and in Arjuna’s Penance; it

adornsKonarak.Indian admiration for the elephant led to its deification as

Ganesha. Yetthis is not matched by our treatment of the animal. Few animals are

asbrutalised and illtreated as the elephant. Today they are used by thelogging

industry, in temples and by government departments of forests andtourism. The

cruelty starts with the capture and training. Wild elephantsare separated from

their herds by nooses thrown from the back of a trainedelephant or concealed on

the ground, by pits into which they fall (afavourite of poachers) or by

frightening them with fire into stockades, apublic jamboree called khedda.

Beautiful wild elephants, which once roamedfree, are imprisoned in kraals

(cages), tortured, brutally beaten, pokedwith sharp metal rods and harassed

with starvation and loneliness till theyfinally submit. This is how elephants

are “trained” into submission. Isthis the treatment for Ganesha?The

mahouts control their charges by poking the goad into sensitive spotsbehind the

ears, causing great pain. Mahouts, according to a document ofthe Ministry of

Environment and Forests, “ill-treat their elephants…deprivethem of

proper bath, water and food in time, and neglect to take thedesired

precautionary measures which at times lead to serious troublesincluding killing

of human beings”. There are several private individualswho own elephants

and use them for begging, advertising, and rent them out.In recent years there

have been several instances of elephants runningamuck on the roads or during

festivals and killing their mahouts, awell-deserved end. In zoos they are

chained and live all alone. They haveto give joyrides in forests and elsewhere.

The worst off are circuselephants, who are burnt and tortured till they ride a

cycle or stand ontheir heads for the enjoyment of human imbeciles.Gifting an

elephant to a temple is the greatest cruelty and should bebanned. They are

chained, with festering sores on their legs. They are madeto stand in the hot

sun and beg for hours, or walked on hot tar streets,begging. People give fruits

and money, imagining they are feeding Ganesha.The fruits are sold by the mahout,

who uses the money on himself. Anelephant needs at least 250 kg of food a day.

Temple and privately-ownedelephants get a few balls of cooked rice. Even

cash-rich temples like thoseof Madurai Meenakshi and Vaitheesvarankovil have

sick and woundedelephants, with calloused ankles where the chains bind them.

The state ofelephants in other temples is equally bad. The government owns

mosttemples, so nobody bothers about the elephants. There are no

veterinarycheck-ups or supervision of feeding.>From time to time, Forest

Departments of the southern or northeasternstates are asked to part with an

elephant to be gifted to a foreign zoo orto a temple. Have you seen the

heart-rending sight of a calf separated fromits mother in elephant camps? The

calf is roped and bundled into a lorry,irrespective of its age, and the mother

and child wail and starve for days.Elephants are social animals and live in

herds headed by a matriarch. Thebaby is protected by its mother and aunts for

nearly fifteen years. Malecalves disperse thereafter, establishing their own

home range to avoidinbreeding. Females never leave. Calves never stray far from

the mother,who becomes extremely agitated if she loses sight of her baby.In

recent years the elephant population in the wild has come downdrastically. 50

percent of the Asian elephants are found in India. Of them,50 percent live in

South India. Before Independence, their population wasover 1,00,000. Today it

is about 28,300. The decreasing numbers are due tohabitat loss, as forests are

cleared for agriculture, plantations of tea,coffee, teak and rubber and human

habitations; dams and canals and miningin forest areas; and poaching for ivory,

which has made Indian tuskers ararity. 59 percent of elephant deaths are caused

by poaching, 13 percent byfood poisoning by farmers, and 8 percent by

electrocution from electricfencing. Between 1980 and 1986, about 100 male

elephants were killedannually.Project Elephant, initiated in 1991-92, aims to

manage the species,creating eleven reserves. But the elephant corridors are

encroached:elephants need to migrate over large areas in search of food,

somethingthat is disappearing fast.So, as we pray to Ganesha, spare a thought

for the elephant. Are we beingkind to them? The elephant goad and noose in

Ganesha’s hands must remind usof human cruelty to this noble creature who

once roamed most of the earth.Man created the elephant-headed God. Let us treat

the elephant with thelove we shower on Ganesha.To from this group,

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