(IN): Overworked jumbos get a break

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*Link: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/324041.html

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*Overworked jumbos get a break*

Neha SinhaPosted online: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 2132 hrs

Project Elephant plans to set up four rehabilitation centres where the

pachyderms can earn some well-deserved rest and medical care

*NEW DELHI, June 17:* Tiruvalla Unnikrishnan has never quite liked temple

festivals—people around him went into a trance as the drum beats rose to a

crescendo. Not him. In April this year, as he stood in the sweltering heat

at the famous Kootalmanikyam Temple at Irinjalakkuda, Kerala, Unnikrishnan

suddenly raised his trunk and trumpeted. The drums went eerily silent and

then, Unnikrishnan ran amok, trampling two and goring the third person to

death. The rampage ended only after a team of veterinarians tranqualised the

elephant.

 

Unnikrishnan had turned violent at last year's festival too. Clearly, he was

overworked and needed rest. Now he has help.

 

Recognising that erratic behaviour in captive elephants is linked to bad

working conditions, Project Elephant, India's flagship elephant programme,

is for the first time setting up four elephant rehabilitation centres in

different corners of the country to provide rejuvenating check-in facilities

for " working " elephants and a home for " retired " elephants.

 

In India, where about 3,400 plus captive elephants, are revered, kept in

temples, and passed on as family heirlooms, these jumbos are often

overworked and denied medical facilities.

 

" Erratic behaviour in working elephants occurs because they don't get

adequate rest or medical attention. We are creating facilities where a

working elephant can check in for two or three months, rejuvenate itself and

then get back to work. These incidents where elephants run amok in temples

or near tourist facilities are because there are usually no facilities where

the elephants can take a break, " says A.N. Prasad of Project Elephant.

 

While Haryana will have the largest and biggest of these medical-cum-resting

facilities, work has also started on one in Orissa. From the South,

Trivandrum in Kerala has expressed interest, and a fourth for the North-east

is likely to be built in Tripura. The Ministry of Environment and Forests

has also asked all states to conduct surveys on the number of captive

elephants.

 

Experts working closely with elephants say medical attention in different

parts of India differ.

 

In Kerala, which has more than 600 elephants, the pachyderms are used in

temples festivals and are protected by law, while Assam, which has the

highest number (over 1,200), uses its elephants for all kinds of purposes.

North Indian elephants are the worst off with hardly any medical care or

rest.

 

" Kerala has a rule for elephants to be properly registered, with a mandatory

veterinary certificate. Ideally, we would like this kind of stringency in

all the states, but the rehab facilities are an important step forward, "

says Prasad.

 

" There isn't a doubt that mahouts and Indians love their elephants across

the country. The elephant enjoys a very special place in the minds of

people. But there is still heavy reliance on traditional medication and

quacks and they are not given any rest. Almost all captive elephants in

Delhi have problems in their feet as they are made to walk on hot roads

during the day, while in Kerala, where the male tusker is a status symbol,

the animals are only made to walk at night or after dawn. The rehab

facilities will put pressure on the owners to avail some medical care, " says

Dr Suraj Kumar, an elephant expert with Wildlife SOS, an NGO which has

signed a memorandum of understanding with the Haryana Government for the

Haryana elephant centre.

 

*Jumbo numbers**

 

*Assam:* 1,290

 

*Kerala:* 635

 

*Tamil Nadu:* 145

 

*West Bengal:* 120

 

*Uttar Pradesh:* 140

 

*Karnataka:* 115

*Captive elephants

 

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