(IN): All is fair at jumbo show- ‘free’ sale of Elephants in bihar cattle carnival

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Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1081118/jsp/frontpage/story_10125947.jsp

 

 

All is fair at jumbo show

- 'free' sale of Elephants in bihar cattle carnival

 

NALIN VERMA

 

*Sonepur (Bihar), Nov. 17:* A samosa may cost Rs 2,500 at the Sonepur cattle

fair but the elephants come free. Officially, the animals are just given

away.

 

The owner writes on a piece of paper " I am donating my elephant to so and

so " and the receiver then pays, say, Rs 25-30 lakh without asking for a

receipt.

 

" Selling or buying elephants was banned country-wide in 2003, " senior forest

official P. Kumar said.

 

Then how does the trade go on at the famous annual fair, held at a site 50km

from Patna, before thousands of pairs of eyes and under the nose of the

government?

 

The authorities have deployed a 300-strong " community police " to check fraud

at the fair and the volunteers stopped a vendor from swindling a Dutch

couple out of Rs 10,000 for four samosas yesterday. But officials say they

don't really want to stop the bigger fraud that has become the cornerstone

of the fair, which draws huge crowds and foreign tourists for a month every

year.

 

" We don't want to kill the fair, " a forest official said.

 

Although the event, believed to be at least 2,400 years old, is called a

cattle fair and sees legal trade in horses, cows and buffaloes, the

elephants are its mainstay. And so they have been at least since the days of

Chandragupta Maurya in the fourth century BC, according to legend.

 

After elephant sale was banned, the Bihar government wrote to the Centre

asking the fair be exempted because " the elephant is associated with the

culture and religion of the Sonepur fair " . It never received a reply.

 

" Besides, the elephant owners are fabulously rich landlords who enjoy

political and social clout. We are forced to shut our eyes sometimes, " a

forest official said.

 

The elephant owners, however, are downbeat.

 

Parasuram Singh, a landlord from Nawada in north Bihar's Siwan district, has

brought his elephant to the fair, which began on November 13. He says it is

one of only 68 elephants on display.

 

That's a paltry figure compared with the 3,000 to 4,000 jumbos that used to

come from places as far as Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Myanmar and

Malaysia in the '70s and '80s.

 

For the past three years, neither animals nor buyers have been coming from

outside the state.

 

Hundreds of buyers would once arrive from Kerala to buy elephants for

temples in the southern state. " But they don't come any more, because they

cannot take the animals back on the strength of the donation chit, " the

official said.

 

Even if Bihar officials don't create obstacles, those of other states on the

way are likely to ask why a landlord from Bihar would donate his elephant to

someone from far-off Kerala.

 

An elephant at the fair costs Rs 13 lakh to Rs 30 lakh. *The Telegraph *saw

a buyer offering Rs 28 lakh to Parasuram, who was pressing for Rs 30 lakh.

 

Fair officials, who keep a record of the " donation " papers, said 10

elephants were sold last year. This year, four have been traded so far. " We

hope nine to 10 will be sold this year too, " owner Dhrup Singh said.

 

Dhrup is afraid for the fair's future. " Times have changed; our children

have moved to the cities. We are the last of the elephant-rearing

generation, " he sighed.

 

Parasuram still regrets that his son Chandrashekhar chose to shift to Delhi,

where he has made good as a millionaire businessman. " I had asked him to

study but not to move out to the polluted cities, " the father said.

 

For Dhrup and Parasuram, owning elephants is not just a business but a

matter of family prestige. It's a proof of one's wealth, for an elephant

eats sugar cane, wheat and barley worth Rs 50,000 a year and mahouts and

other servants have to be hired for its upkeep.

 

" We have owned elephants since my great-grandfather's day. *Yeh khandaan ke

shaan ki nishani hai *(it's the family's badge of honour), " Parasuram said.

" As a business it may bring profit or loss, but it's a huge honour to be

referred to as a *hathinashin*(elephant owner). "

 

Then, there's the small matter of love. Parasuram says only an elephant

owner can understand the emotional bond between animal and master.

 

" Once I boarded a bus near my village. My elephant Chakradhar somehow sensed

it -- he came onto the road and blocked it with his trunk, " Parasuram said.

 

" The other passengers became panicky. I got off, talked to Chakradhar and

kissed him. Only then he let the bus move. "

 

According to mythology, the Sonepur fair began after Lord Krishna saved an

elephant from a crocodile at the site, where the Gandak meets the Ganga. The

horses and cattle came later.

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