COMPASSION UNLIMITED PLUS ACTION REACTS TO PROPOSED ELEPHANT POLO MATCH

[Guest guest]

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Suparna Ganguly <suparnaganguly

Oct 18, 2006 11:54 PM

Fwd: reg. the proposed match

 

 

shubho,

you can put this on tha aapn group....i am not very sure how to do

it.............and the website, if you want.

suparna

 

 

 

 

 

I strongly feel that the Elephant Polo match is absolutely unnecessary and

would create problems for captive elephants in India.

 

 

 

My main point of concern is not that HIS is participating in something like

elephant polo (because I know they will ensure that all the right things are

done) *but the message that it will send out to the rest of India. *

 

 

 

If the Government Elephant Camps, private owners, elephant brokers cite

elephant-polo as an example of revenue earning and try further to popularize

the keeping of captive elephants in Kerala and the rest of India, we will be

battling against all the ills of Indian elephant keeping as well as the

vested interests and trade of the Thailand Elephant Camps. The latter also

state conservation as their objective but the worst cruelties happen under

this label, much in the same way that religion alternates here.

 

 

 

The captive elephant lobby is trying to make as much money from these

animals and if Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) encourage their plans,

then trade, elephant entertainment, elephant shows will find a new time

high........

 

 

 

Our study and research is trying to focus on the best ways that elephants

can be used in captivity. Their presence and usage in urban areas and in

animal entertainment has been rejected as a way forward for a captive

elephant solution. Instead there are many other avenues in the forest areas

itself.

 

 

 

Also, the elephant in India has been given the status of a wild animal in

the WildLife Protection Act. Elephant physiology, biology and social needs

are totally different from a horse or any other domestic animal......this

has now also been globally recognized. Our aim would be to phase out captive

elephant keeping in the next 10 years, giving a generation ample time to

gear into other forms of livelihoods. In Kerala, it is less of livelihood

and more of an investment for rich private owners, who number far more than

temple ownerships. The elephant keeping supports a vast nexus of black

money, brokers, rentals, trade in tusks etc. To glamorize an activity like

elephant polo by animal welfare NGOs is to slow down the process and loosen

pressure on the government and owners to phase out captive elephant usage in

the tourism and entertainment industry.

 

 

In Rajasthan, the state itself is not a natural elephant range area. To

promote elephant keeping by exploring other forms of revenue earning from

them, would be to harm the concept of gradual phase-out, which everyone

agrees is the best possible solution to stop the trade and associated

cruelties with it. . Rajasthan is not an elephant range country. The heat

and desert dryness give rise to many and severe health problems for the

elephants. More than 5% elephants are blind due to corneal opacity arising

from extreme heat and glare. It is advisable that captive elephants are

phased out gradually in Jaipur and other parts of Rajasthan.

 

Since these elephants were a hand out from the Maharajas to their erstwhile

mahouts, the maintenance, upkeep and housing is extremely sub-standard, as

is common all over India. The past mahouts are today's elephant owners and

use the animal to eke out a living.

 

 

 

The public loves animal sport......the flood gates will be open for a new

genre of entertainment and there will be many abuses and subversion from any

original intentions. Along with, we may have to put up with sarcastic

comments like - " .........but it is an animal welfare NGO that is promoting

this.....why do you object? " With or without ankush has not much relevance

when it is known that an elephant has 109 sensitive points and a stick can

apply as much pain as an ankush, since these pain spots are known to the

mahouts.

 

 

 

For an NGO to organize an elephant polo match in Jaipur may be controversial

but in the rest of India it will be a clarion call to use elephants for

sport and entertainment! The traders are looking for an excuse to increase

the buying and selling of elephant sub-adults and calves, mostly captured

from the wild. The age profile of Jaipur elephants reveal that owners do not

keep an animal well into old age, but replace it with younger animals. After

16-20 years of living in Jaipur and once the health problems becomes

apparent, the old stock is removed to be replaced by fresh, healthier ones.

 

 

 

Captive elephant conditions has been the subject of a two year study by

WSPA-CUPA -ANCF (IISc) on management and an ongoing health assessment

survey at an all India level. The intricacies of the captive elephant trade

and usage are complex and difficult to stamp out.

 

 

 

The NGO position will be diluted and made ambiguous by being a part of

entertainment activities organized for the captive elephant trade.

 

 

 

With regards and best wishes,

 

Suparna Ganguly.