Elephant birth control introduced in India, From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

 

 

Elephant birth control introduced in India

 

About a dozen female elephants among the 30 elephants used

for patrol work by the West Bengal Forest Department are soon to

receive birth control implants, senior department official P.T.

Bhutiya told news media in mid-September 2006.

" Our department is suffering a budget cut, so we have been

asked to only maintain those elephants who are useful, and introduce

birth control amongst the whole population, " Bhutiya said. The

forestry department herd formerly produced three or four offspring

per year.

Of the estimated 400 elephants left in West Bengal, about

65-80 are captive work or exhibition animals.

" Some who belong to the camps get impregnated when they go

out to the forests to graze. The growing population has become a

matter of concern for the authorities who find it difficult to

provide the requisite fodder, " West Bengal chief conservator of

forests Ujjal Bhattacharjee explained to Marcus Dam of The Hindu in

March 2006, when the agency first applied to the federal environment

ministry for permission to use the contraceptive implants.

" This is just a killing exercise, " objected Friends of

Wetlands & Wildlife coordinator Mukuta Mukherjee. " If the government

cannot feed the elephants, they should look for sponsors, but not do

anything to cut down their population. "

" We should be encouraging births among the wild population, "

countered Born Free Foundation consultant Ian Redmond to Kate Thomas

of The Independent, " but elephants are complex social animals, and

condemning newborn calves to a lifetime in captivity, in the absence

of funds and a structured program that allows them to be reintroduced

into the wild, would be questionable. "

 

 

--Merritt Clifton

 

--

Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

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