OSAMA BIN LADEN: The Indian Elephant

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

This is not the first time in Assam, that a victim of the human-

elephant crisis has been tagged as 'Osama Bin Laden'.

 

A few years back Assam witnessed yet another kill of an elephant

which was injured with arrows and was believed to have killed some

human lives, the villagers who had gathered there to see the dead

elephant wrote " LADEN " in Assamese in red letters on the Jumbo`s body.

 

In the news report below one can see that this " LADEN " tag instead of

dying out is now being propagated by none other than the Forest

Minister, Mr. Rockybul Hussain and unfortunately the news reporter

also decided to club the rouge elephant as " LADEN " when he describes

the elephant.

 

The tagging as " TERRORISTS " of the unfortunate rouge elephants in

India which fall prey to injuries and then are abandoned from their

herds only to frequent human habitats, only goes to prove that in

future human-elephant conflicts will be termed as " TERRORIST ATTACKS " .

 

And with so called Indian Elephant Experts like Dhirtikanta Lahiri

Choudhury, comming out with brilliant new concepts of Commercial

Culling, the future for Indian Elephants in the wild seems not only

bleak but hopeless.

 

Azam Siddiqui

 

Please read news report below:

 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061215/asp/frontpage/story_7142104.asp

 

Death warrant out for rogue Laden

- Assam asks elephant hunter to `execute' animal with one shot

A STAFF REPORTER

Guwahati, Dec. 14: Assam has set out to do what America could not:

kill Laden.

 

An elephant hunter has been hired by the forest department to track

down and shoot the rogue tusker that has been on the rampage in

Sonitpur district this winter, earning from terrified villagers the

sobriquet Laden.

 

" He has unleashed terror, inviting comparisons with Osama bin Laden.

We have set December 31 as the deadline to eliminate him, " forest

minister Rockybul Hussain said of the elephant, which has been

trampling people and destroying entire villages and acres of standing

crops since last month.

 

Hussain made the statement while replying to questions in the

Assembly about the forest department's response to the intensifying

man-elephant conflict.

 

Elephant herds have been straying out of their shrinking habitats

across the state, targeting not only villages but also militant

hideouts. In Jorhat district, one of the strongholds of the outlawed

Ulfa, elephants last month destroyed several makeshift camps on the

chaporis — Assamese for sandbank — off Neamati.

 

On the other hand, Laden trampled four members of a family in

Sonitpur district. On Tuesday night, the tusker killed Safura Khatun,

a brick kiln worker, in Biswanath Chariali.

 

The forest department has already moved chief minister Tarun Gogoi

for a special relief package for villagers whose houses and crops

have been destroyed by elephant herds.

 

The forest minister told the media after the day's Assembly

proceedings that elephant hunter Dinesh Choudhury would track down

Laden. " He has been asked to kill the elephant with a single shot. "

 

In the past three years, Laden is the sixth rogue elephant to have a

death warrant issued against his name.

 

Hussain said the government was trying to restore food sources in

elephant habitats to keep hungry herds from straying out.

 

Assam has five elephant sanctuaries — Ripu-Chirang, Sonitpur, Dihing

Patkai, Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong and Dhansiri-Lumding. About 900

hectares have been earmarked in these five sanctuaries for

plantations that will provide elephant fodder, the minister said.

 

The forest department has had to declare an emergency and cancel

leave of employees posted in Lakhimpur and Majuli to manage an

elephant herd that has been shunting between these two places in

search of its original habitat. " Chased by villagers from one place

to another, the herd has lost track of the corridor leading to its

habitat. They have been stranded for nearly a week, " Hussain said.