Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
In the 80s, it was common to see an elephant on the streets carrying billboards for companies. The Dabur elephant was the most famous. The owners claimed he was a pet, but that didn’t stop them from loading their company’s heavy billboards on him and sending him out in the hot sun to walk kilometers on tarred roads in congested areas. They also rented him out for birthday parties and melas. He lived a short and unhappy life. The Daburs were never proceeded against legally for his death.
Why are we using elephants at all for anything? They are as rare as tigers. In fact there are just 1200 tuskers left and then they will be extinct. Would we dream of parading tigers down a street. No, because they could kill us. So why do we use elephants. Because we have taken them from their families as babies and beaten them into submission and so we are fairly confident that these animals will not revolt.
Besides they are shackled and the man sitting on top has a pointed spear which he thrusts into the most sensitive part of its head every few minutes.
Why do we use elephants as live mascots? Appu the Baby Elephant was a cartoon figure used for the Asian Games in 1982, but it resulted in a rash of elephants being paraded for the games. The 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist wrestler, Sushil Kumar was also made by the Ministry of Sports to ride an elephant and parade through Delhi as part of his felicitation. Children conferred with bravery awards were made to ride elephants until 2009 when the elephants showed aberrant behaviour, considered dangerous to their passengers. They are used as gimmicks for religious festivals to attract tourists, political rallies, protests and pretentious weddings. All the Bahujan Samaj candidates look for elephants at election time. Once I confiscated the elephant of the candidate in Shahjanhanpur. Most of those on the street are used for begging by their licence holders (that is another racket as licences have supposedly not been given for any elephant after 1972 but all the elephants being used are young ones) and the mandirs use them to stand outside and greet financial donors.
On the riverbank of the Yamuna is an elephant colony comprising of 26 animals rented by people of the capital. Of these 5 are in such a bad, malnourished condition – since they are only fed the leaves of the peepal trees whose branches they break off themselves. In February 2010 at a wedding in Meerut, 15 elephants were brought to welcome the baraatis. Gunshots were fired as a part of the celebrations. One elephant lost his nerve and smashed vehicles, blocked roads and went into a sugarcane field chased by 200 people. He was tranquillized and caught.
In Kerala, Jaipur and Orissa elephants walk hours on the hot tarred roads without food or water, under the blazing sun of March, April and May, laden with hot fabric and howdahs simply to attract tourists at the gajamelas. All around is ear splitting music. Now even churches and mosques have started emulating these so called Hindu festivals. Temple elephants lose nearly 300 kgs in a single festive season. Some of them lose their lives because they go crazy in the heat and noise.
Sometimes elephants are taken to fairs in which they have to take part in tugs of war with ropes – often against more than 50 people.
In November 2009, based on the Elephant Task Force report and recommendations, the Government of India directed that all captive elephants should be transferred immediately to Forest Departments. This has not happened. Then a limited order was made –elephants were ordered out of zoos where they are kept shackled all the time or made to give rides to visitors. This has not happened either. Two elephants in Indore have had a particularly miserable life. They have been shackled for over 20 years each and one has gone into a terrible depression. Three court orders from the M.P. High Court have been ignored. The last was that they be released into an enclosure of 2 acres. The Indore Municipality, headed by a commissioner of unparalleled arrogance, keeps delaying it on the grounds of taking out a tender. The head of Project Elephant in Delhi, who has the power to compel him, refuses to do anything.
As soon as Prakash Javdekar took over as Minister for Environment and Forests he banned animals in circuses. This is the best thing anyone has done in a long time. More than 80 elephants are held by circuses and made to do really gross things like inhaling sindoor through their trunks and blowing it out on the audience. Half of that gets into their lungs and destroys their nasal hair. Other tricks are climbing onto small stools, mounting each other, walking on two legs. When the officials started this process they discovered that instead of 26 registered circuses, there were 42 – the rest were unregistered and completely illegal. No circus informs the government of where they are. Their animals die – they forget to inform the Animal Welfare Board and simply get more. Where do they get these elephants from? No one knows – since new ownership of elephants has been banned since 1972. Elephants, and all the other animals (hippos whose eyes have been blinded by all circuses so that they are more amenable to order around for instance), will be put into zoos and rescue centres.
Anyway, if we can remove elephants from circuses, zoos, begging and temples, we may be able to save the species. Otherwise – with 600 dying annually in Kerala alone from bad treatment – we will lose an important part of India’s heritage soon.
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