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INDIA-ANIMAL-ELEPHANTS
Delhi’s last elephants await marching orders
NEW DELHI, Sept 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The mighty Heera marched through a
crowded slum chewing bamboo, oblivious that freedom from life as one of
Delhi’s last six elephants at work in the polluted city could be just around
the corner.
After years of pressure from activists who accuse the animals’ owners of
flouting wildlife regulations by keeping them in a city, authorities have
ordered the seizure of the elephants.
They plan to move the 40-year-old tusker — along with Dharamvati, Laxmi,
Gangaram, Moti and Chandni — out of the smoggy Indian capital, but warn it
could take months to find a new home for them.
“They are kept away from their natural habitat,” a senior Forest Department
official said, highlighting “reports of insufficient food, water, shelter and
veterinary care, all which could expose them to disease”.
Fifty years ago the Indian capital housed more than 200 elephants, covered
in garlands and carrying grooms to weddings, or being sought by the faithful
for blessings at temples.
But now the city — overcome by cars, a population of 20 million and
choking on pollution — is no longer a suitable home for the animals, with
Heera and his five bedraggled companions the last elephants to live there.
Media reports say authorities are struggling to relocate the elephants
because four are sick.
Officials hope to find a new home resembling the luxuriant farm belonging
to consumer goods tycoon Vivek Chand Burman in Delhi where a seventh, female
street elephant was recently taken.
She has her own mud pool and quarters complete with fans and sprinklers, a
world away from her poorer relatives who wade in the Yamuna, one of the
world’s most polluted rivers.
– ‘In love with elephants’ –
But while animal rights campaigners welcome the move, it is a difficult
moment for their owners — who deny any neglect.
Mehboob Ali likened it to snatching a legacy passed on by his ancestors.
“My family has been keeping elephants for six generations,” he said. “They
are like our family and have been with us through thick and thin. We cannot
live without each other.”
Heera’s keeper Mukesh Yadav has been looking after elephants since he was a
child.
“I was so in love with elephants that I even decided not to marry. I felt
that I must dedicate my life to the service of this holy animal,” he said.
The animals hold a special place in Indian culture, and elephant-headed
Ganesha is one of Hinduism’s most revered gods.
Yadav bemoaned the loss of traditions that once allowed elephant keepers
like him to work freely across the country.
“Earlier, people had a genuine fondness for these animals. A single village
could have up to 20 elephants.
“We used to take a parade to graze in the fields and leave them to roam in
the jungles. We would proudly present them at weddings and feasts. And now
the government comes to us claiming that they are their property?” he said
angrily.
– ‘Walking the jungles’ –
Ali is infuriated by constant inspections of his elephants, which he
believes are being done under pressure from activists.
He claimed that he has been harassed on several occasions by animal welfare
groups.
“They are behaving as if we have stolen these elephants whereas they belong
to us,” he said.
“Do you know that my great grandfather was often given elephants as gifts
by the maharajahs? And we have continued to trade them at animal fairs in
various parts of the country.”
But activists counter that such claims mask a murky nexus of commercial
exploitation, where little interest is paid to the animals’ welfare.
Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of Wildlife SOS, said the elephants had
spent most of their lives in deplorable conditions and must be taken back to
the forests.
“If people are actually made aware of the brutal methods used to capture,
tame and bring these elephants to the city, they would never want to see them
here again,” he said.
“What would you choose, the joy of seeing an elephant rolling in the mud
and walking the jungles, or seeing an abused and captive creature on the
streets of Delhi outside a temple or a circus?”
BSS/AFP/MRI/1140 HRS