Elephant polo debate overshadows introduction of microchipping

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November/December 2007:

 

 

Elephant polo debate overshadows introduction of microchipping

 

BANGKOK, MUMBAI--The Tourism Authority of Thailand on

Nov-ember 19, 2007 named the King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament one

of Thai-land's must-see " Seven Amazing Wonders. "

The announcement reignited a debate over elephant polo that

has raged for more than two years through the Asian Animal Protection

Network electronic forum. Opponents, chiefly in the northeast of

India, where elephant polo has never been played, hold that the

game is cruel exploitation. Others see it as a chance for the

elephant participants to enjoy a day of light work on grass, as a

pretext for affluent humans to party.

The game itself consists of only two ten-minute chukkars,

in contrast to the elephants' usual daily labor of either hauling

tourists or waiting for customers.

Heated in India, the AAPN discussion of elephant polo

appears to have attracted little interest from Thailand, nor much

notice from other places where elephants commonly work.

Partly, this may be because of astute public relations by

elephant polo promoters. The King's Cup is named in honor of King

Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Ceremonially reigning over Thailand for 60 years, the

79-year-old king and his wife, Queen Sirikit, have long been animal

advocates. Protecting elephants, the Thai national animal, is part

of their ceremonial role.

Because the King and Queen are protectors of elephants, but

have not spoken against elephant polo, the King's Cup tournament is

perceived as having royal approval.

As 2004 King's Cub tournament attendee Judith Ritter

explained to readers of the Toronto Globe & Mail, " While the king

never actually shows up, he does give his official blessing. "

Like most elephant polo events, the King's Cup tournament

benefits an elephant charity. The King's Cup beneficiary is the

National Elephant Institute in Lampang. The institute works for the

benefit of both the 1,500 wild elephants believed to be in Thailand

and the estimated 2,500 captive elephants.

Some of the captive elephants--like the polo elephants--are

mostly ridden by visitors. Others are used in logging and for other

heavy pulling and lifting. As tractors have gradually displaced

logging elephants, many wander city streets, begging with their

mahouts. Bangkok banned elephants from the city streets in 1992,

but as many as 50 reportedly still elude confiscation, plodding

through back streets near tourist areas.

Older working elephants in Thailand were traditionally

retired to Buddhist temples, where they spent their last years as

visitor attractions. Though temple elephants are still abundant

throughout Southeast Asia and India, relatively few temples can

afford to house and feed an elephant, and the number of elephants in

need of sanctuary greatly exceeds the availability of appropriate

temple facilities.

Since the World Elephant Polo Association formed in Nepal in

1982, the sport spread to Jaipur, India; Sri Lanka; and reached

Thailand when the King's Cup tournament was organized in 2001. The

first seven editions of the annual King's Cup tournament have raised

more than $175,000 for the National Elephant Institute.

The chief concern of the Thai National Parks, Wildlife &

Plant Conservation Department about captive elephants in recent years

has been illegal trafficking. Owning an elephant can be costly, but

either selling an elephant abroad or selling the ivory from a

deceased elephant can be quite lucrative.

In addition, there is suspicion that crop-raiding elephants

are being captured and " laundered " through being sold to other parts

of Thailand--or the world--under the identities of captive elephants

who have already been exported, either alive or dead.

The National Parks, Wildlife & Plant Conservation Department

in August 2007 announced new regulations governing the export of live

elephants and body parts, but stopped short of introducing mandatory

microchipping and an elephant DNA data base, as some elephant

advocates sought.

Incidents bringing elephant trafficking to public attention

included the export of eight elephants to Australian zoos in July

2006, after 15 months of controversy, public protests, and

attempted legal interventions led by Friends of the Asian Elephant,

and the March 2007 interception of two elephants who were allegedly

being smuggled into Thailand from Myanmar. Five men who were caught

in possession of the elephants said they planned to sell them to Thai

investors.

 

India

 

India is already moving toward microchip identification of

all of the estimated 3,600 captive elephants in the nation, about

1,000 of them in Assam, in the extreme northeast, and 900 in

Kerala, in the southwest.

The Delhi city wildlife department and Wildlife SOS began

microchipping elephants in 2006. " Last year, 20 animals were

tagged, " Wildlife SOS cofounder Kartick Satyanarayan told Bindu

Shajan Perappadan of The Hindu in October 2007. The remaining

elephants were microchipped before Satyana-rayan spent much of

November 2007 on a speaking tour of the U.S. and Mexico.

" We hope to be able to gradually cut off the illegal supply

of elephants to Delhi, " Satyanarayan said. " Also, we will become

able to monitor the working hours of the domesticated elephants in

the city. "

In Kochi, far to the south, several separate programs

reportedly microchipped as many as 40 elephants in 2006 and early

2007. City officials in April 2007 announced a plan to license

elephants, but seven months later had not followed up, according to

The Hindu.

Tamil Nadu in April 2007 initiated microchipping elephants by

chipping six privately owned elephants at Uttamarkovil, and then

chipping the temple elephants at Rockfort, Samayapuram and Srirangam.

In Kerala the drive to microchip captive elephants got a

boost from five elephants running amok in four months at the

Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple in Thiruvanathapuram. Elephant Lovers

Associ-ation secretary V.K. Ven-kitachalam asserted that at least one

of the elephants was overworked on the day he went berserk, and had

worked with three different ill-trained mahouts in three years.

Improved identification of elephants could help law

enforcement agencies to recognize such problems in advance of

catastrophe.

But as in Thai-land, the major use of microchipping

elephants in India is expected to be tracking illegal sales.

Opponents of elephant trafficking won a round in August 2007

when the Kerala High Court upheld a Kerala state government ban on

importing elephants from other states.

The Elephant Owners' Association " argued that there was a

dearth of elephants in Kerala, " recounted the Deccan Herald, while

" the government counsel countered this, saying that the State's

pachyderm population was saturated, " and attributing " many incidents

of elephants attacking mahouts and the public in recent months,

several of them resulting in deaths, " to the arrival of poorly

trained elephants believed to have been captured in Bihar state, far

to the north.

The Bihar elephants are conspicuous because they do not

respond to commands in Malayalam, the major language of Kerala and

adjacent states. As many as 50 Bijar elephants are believed to have

recently passed through Kerala on their way to work in Karnataka. In

May 2007 a Bihar elephant reportedly turned up in Pondicherry--almost

as far from Bihar as an elephant could go and still be in India.

The Kerala High Court ruled against further elephant imports

on the same day that Kerala began microchipping the resident

elephants. Thirteen elephants were chipped the first day, the

Deccan Herald said, ranging in age " from three-year-old Unnikuttan

to 95-year-old Gangadharan. "

Attempts to keep Indian working elephants out of dangerous

places and potentially abusive work received a setback in June 2007,

when the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court overturned a May 2005

order by the principal chief conservator of forests and chief

wildlife warden which had prohibited using captive elephants in

marriage ceremonies, temple festivals, and logging.

Reported The Hindu, " Justice K. Suguna ruled that it was

unreasonable to impose a blanket ban on employing pachyderms, " but

Suguna allowed elephant use to be regulated in a " reasonable " manner.

Barely a month later, however, the Maharashtra state

forestry department banished elephants from within the Mumbai city

limits altogether. " We want to keep the poor elephants off city

roads. It is sad to see them walking with traffic going past, "

explained a senior Maharashtra forestry official to Ramola Talwar

Badam of Associated Press.

" Before the ban, " Badam wrote, " 14 elephants worked in

Mumbai. They begged for their handlers, participated in religious

ceremonies, or became status symbols at weddings. Police were

forced to release an elephant handler who was arrested after the ban

went into effect, " Badam added, " because there was no way to look

after the elephant, who spent five hours chained outside the police

station. The 13-year-old elephant named Laxmi and her handler went

free after the handler signed a statement promising to take Laxmi out

of the city. "

The Maharashtra government has announced plans to build a

captive elephant rehabilitation center in the Nashik forests, about

125 miles northeast of Mumbai.

Assam state chief wildlife warden M.C. Malakar in August 2007

asked police and district forest officials to prohibit use of

elephants to perform tricks or beg.

Malakar acted about one month after two domesticated

elephants, a male and a female, on July 24, 2007 went on a

20-kilometer rampage near Cachar, killing seven people from five

villages in Assam before crossing into Mizoram. There the elephants

killed one more person before Mizoram state police shot them.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

[ANIMAL PEOPLE is the leading independent newspaper providing

original investigative coverage of animal protection worldwide,

founded in 1992. Our readership of 30,000-plus includes the

decision-makers at more than 10,000 animal protection organizations.

We have no alignment or affiliation with any other entity. $24/year;

for free sample, send address.]