Elephant Festival 2006 in Kaziranga

[Guest guest]

Elephant Festival 2006 in Kaziranga.

 

 

The 2006, Kaziranga Elephant Festival in Kaziranga, Assam got to a

start today.

There was no display of the events which were banned last year due

to protests by various NGOs and animal rights activists.

Events such as elephant football, elephant mock fight, elephant tug-

of-war, elephant painting etc were removed from the itenary last

year at the Kaziranga Centenary Celebrations.

Ms. Belinda Wright, Executive Director of the Wildlife Protection

Society of India (WPSI) wo was a special invitee to the festival,

declined the invitation as a mark of protest. She also campaigned

people who were supposed to attend this festival from far of

European countries and UK to stay away from a circus like event.

Smt. Maneka Gandhi was also one of the most important person to ahve

voiced for the elephants. She took the matter with the Union Forest

Secretary and was assured by the Government that they shall not go

ahead with the events.

PETA-India Chief Funtionary, Anuradha Sawhney, sent letters to the

Government officials in Assam to not hold the events and also

carried out a huge signature campaign with the PETA members in Assam.

This victory was the biggest animal rights victory ever seen in this

North Eastern Region of India, where a hundred of years tradition

was banned.

This year too there were news reports that the banned events might

be held during the festival. PETA-India wrote once again to all the

officials concernemd, the Governor of Assam, the Chief Minister of

Assam and others appealing not to hold the events. A legal notice

was also sent to the Deputy Commisioner of Golaghat district asking

him to take note that such events are not allowed to happen again.

The attendence of the domestic elephants at the festival was very

thin compared to last year where more than 350 elephants had

assembledfrom across Assam, this year it was only about twenty odd

elephants from nearby Kaziranga.

The local journalists in Kaziranga along with their fraternity of

Golaghat district sat in a protest wearing black masks on their

faces, boycotting the Elephant Festival and demading justice for the

murder of Journalist Mr.Prahlad Goala, the correspondent of the

regional daily Asomiya Khaba in Thuramukh who was murdered on 6th

January 2006, in the northeastern state of Assam, allegedly at the

behest of a forest warden he had criticised in several articles.

Married and the father of a 14-month-old girl, Goala was run down by

a car while travelling on a motor-cycle in Golaghat district (300 km

east of the state capital, Guwahati). He was then repeatedly stabbed

by several men and died of head injuries.

Zaman Jinnah, a forest warden in the Nambar reserve, has been

arrested on suspicion of hiring men to kill Goala. Jinnah had made

death threats against Goala and his family after Goala wrote a

series of articles a week before accusing him of corruption and

misconduct.