ELEPHANT'S PRICE

Animal Rights

Elephant's Price

Neglect and brutal treatment too often beset our temple mascots

By Vrindavanam S. Gopalakrishnan, Ernarkulam, Kerala
HINDUISM TODAY
http://www.hinduismtoday.com
July-August-September 2003

Visitors to the famed Krishna temple at Guruvayoor in
Kerala seldom skip visiting the nearby Punnathur Kotta
Anathavalam, or elephant grounds. It is such a stunning
experience to see the 57 elephants, ages from six to sixty-
five, up close. There is a saying in India that one never
tires of watching three things: the Moon, the ocean and an
elephant. But all is not well in the lives of these
intelligent, sensitive and highly social creatures.

There is another saying in India, "elephant's price,"
meaning "immensely expensive." It's a tribute to the value
of an elephant in the old days when they served as crane,
forklift, tow truck or Sherman Tank, as the occasion
required. Even the temple elephants were kept busy with
work in addition to being available for the religious
functions. Their keepers, the mahouts, were then highly
trained and respected. Today many are not. The result is
the elephants now pay the high price of human neglect.

Take the example of the mahout Gopalakrishnan, an
alcoholic. He had stupidly taken the majestic tusker
Ravipuram Govindan out on the main thoroughfare of Kochi on
January 22, 2003, despite the elephant showing signs of
musth, the frenzied yearly sexual season of the males. The
enraged elephant killed his mahout and terrorized the city
before being shot by a tranquilizer gun.

Recently the government animal welfare officer took in an
elephant, Lakshmanan, at nearby Mattanchery. He had burns
on his forehead and mouth and was in very poor condition,
all a result of mistreatment. There are many other
examples.

There have been an increasing number of incidents of
rebellious elephants, often those owned by temples. The
mahouts are getting the blame because of their ruthless
behavior toward the elephants, their lack of understanding
of the psychology of the animal coupled with inexperience
and dereliction of duty. The mahouts, according to
officials of the temple administration I interviewed, are
paid US$125 a month, plus benefits, including housing—not a
lot for a 24/7 commitment to an animal who may be daily
contemplating your demise.

Temple elephants come from two sources. One is when a rich
person gifts an elephant to a temple, a traditional
offering. The pomp and circumstance with which these gifts
are received is not followed by proper care.

A second group of elephants are those hired out by their
owners for work in the timber depots or to the temples for
festivals. According to Dr. K. C. Panicker, a Kerala
Agricultural University veterinary college professor and
currently the Secretary of the Elephant Welfare
Association, Trissur, they, too, are not cared for
properly.

Many have been subjected to cruel treatment to break their
spirit and make them obey the commands. Some mahouts go to
the extent of applying "the brakes" around their back legs
to control them. This abominable instrument [photo upper
right] drives spikes into the animal's leg if he offers any
resistance against it. For an account of more humane
training, see  www.chiangmai-chiangrai.com/elep-atwork.htm

"Many think that since it is just an animal, whatever they
provide is enough," says Dr. Panicker. "But that is not the
case with elephants. They are intelligent, emotional and
sensitive. Elephants like clean premises. If the surface is
filthy, they will sleep standing. Elephants drink only
clean water. They become friendly with those who offer them
their favorite food, such as plantain, jaggery, etc."

Panicker went on to explain the requirements of elephant
care. "The quantum of food required by an elephant daily is
five percent of its weight, which runs 2,500 to 4,500 kg.
Throughout the day, except for the four hours when they
sleep, elephants eat. A working adult should be fed five
kilos of rice, ten kilos of ragi (black millet), 100 grams
of salt, 50 grams of jaggery and 300 kilos of palm leaves.
Most private owners provide 18 kilos of cooked rice and 200
to 300 kilos of palm leaves. But now the shortage of palm
leaves is a major problem and no efforts are being made to
plant more."

With the palm consumption going up as the number of captive
elephants increases, most of the elephants remain underfed,
Panicker pointed out. Given this situation, the best
alternative left is to grow hybrid napier grass in the
wastelands. Similarly, provision for drinking water has to
be made. Elephants consume around 250 liters of clean water
daily. For good health, the elephant should spend three to
four hours each day in water and be bathed with hard
scrubbers. But these conditions are rarely met for the
working elephant or those used at temple festivals.

On top of malnourishment comes increasing mistreatment by
untrained mahouts, said Panicker. The novices treat the
animals ruthlessly and inflict injuries on them, creating
an uncontrollable beast. Such continuous torture often
leads to sickness and even death.

To a great extent, the nonavailability of trained mahouts
could be attributed to the poor wages and to the risk
involved, he said. Lack of proper care and maintenance also
results in increase of deaths. During the past two decades,
234 elephants died in Kerala alone. The highest number was
20 in 1997.

The largest number of elephants kept in captivity is at
Punnathur Kotta of the Guruvayur Temple administration. The
area in which they are housed is quite inadequate, Panicker
said, even though this is one of the better compounds in
the state. There is little provision for dealing with male
elephants during the annual musth period when they become
wild and don't respond to their mahout. This lasts for a
few days in adolescent males up to three months in 30- and
40-year-olds. During this period, they are heavily chained
and left without proper care.

Panicker makes recommendations to alleviate the problems.
The Punnathur Kotta and like places should have more space,
compound walls and a forest atmosphere so that the
elephants can move freely. There has to be a mating yard to
preserve the social order. There should be a special place
for baby elephants to be raised, like the elephant
orphanage set up in Kandy, Sri Lanka, see
members.lycos.co.uk/withanage/orphanage.htm.

Instead of donating an elephant to the temple, Panicker
recommends the devotee take up the maintenance of an
elephant already owned by the temple. Ensuring the
sensitive and emotional pachyderm's happiness and well
being surely would be pleasing to the temple Deity, he
noted.

Panicker helped organize the international workshop on
elephant management held from October 25 to 27, 2002, at
Trissur in Kerala under the auspices of the Elephant
Welfare Association. Veterinarians from various parts of
the country and others from abroad participated.

One of the best sources of information for modern
veterinarians remains the Hasti Ayurved of Palapapia. This
ancient text is the world's first on veterinary medicine
and deals mostly with elephants and horses. Both were key
to the military readiness of the kingdom. Ancient India
understood elephants, and the level of care can be
ascertained by comparing the food rations mentioned earlier
in this article with the more nourishing and satisfying
diet listed in the Arthashastr (at right) 2,300 years ago.
In the USA, that diet could run US$700/week. Unfortunately,
these ancient texts are not consulted much today.

There are estimated in all of Asia to be 35,000 to 50,000
Asian elephants in the wild and an additional 15,000 in
captivity. Their numbers are just a tenth of the African
elephant. The World Conservation Union Red List, which is a
comprehensive data base of endangered species, states that
Asian elephants have experienced a 50% reduction in numbers
over the last three generations as a result of exploitation
and decline of habitat.

No matter how well treated, an elephant remains an
undomesticated animal. It has never been selectively bred
like the cow and horse to live closely with humans.
Consequently, only under the kindest and most intelligent
of care will the animal be content in captivity.
Unfortunately, our traditional knowledge of how to provide
such considerate care is declining as rapidly as the
elephant's population.

---------------------------------------------------------
Elephants' Kingly Care
---------------------------------------------------------

The ancient Arthashastr treated them right

Kautiliya lived 2,300 years ago. He was the chief minister
to the Maurya King, Chandragupt. He wrote the Arthashastr,
an erudite text, running to 500 pages in translation,
covering every aspect of government, including the care of
elephants.
---------------------------------------------------------
"The King's Superintendent of Elephants shall take proper
steps to protect elephant forests and supervise the
operations with regard to the standing or lying in stables
of elephants, male, female or young, when they are tired
after training, and examine the proportional quantity of
rations and grass, the extent of training given to them,
their accouterments and ornaments, as well as the work of
elephant doctors, of trainers of elephants in warlike
feats, and of grooms, such as drivers, binders and others."
(Introduction, Chapter 31, "The Superintendent of
Elephants")
---------------------------------------------------------
"The first and seventh of the eight divisions of the day
are the two bathing times of elephants; the time subsequent
to those two periods is for their food; forenoon is the
time for their exercise; afternoon is the time for drink;
two (out of eight) parts of the night are the time for
sleep; one-third of the night is spent in taking wakeful
rest." (Section 136)
---------------------------------------------------------
The [daily] rations for an elephant [of standard height]
shall be one drona of rice [equivalent to 13.2 kg], half an
adhaka of oil [1.6 kg], 3 prasthas of ghee [2.5 kg], 10
palas of salt [.5 kg], 50 palals of flesh [2.3 kg], one
adhaka of broth (rasam) [3.3 kg], or twice the quantity of
curd [6.6 kg]; in order to render the dish tasteful, 10
palas of sugar (kshara) [.5 kg], one adhakara of liquor
[3.3 kg], or twice the quantity of milk (payah) [6.6 kg];
one prastha of oil [.8 kg] for smearing over the body, one-
eight prastha of oil [.1 kg] for the head and for keeping a
light in the stables; two bharas of meadow grass [140 kg],
2.25 bharas of ordinary grass (sashpa) [157.5 kg], and 2.5
bharas of dry grass [175 kg]; and any quantity of stalks of
various pulses (kadankara). (Section 137)
---------------------------------------------------------
"Accumulation of dirt in stables, failure to supply grass,
causing an elephant to lie down on hard and unprepared
ground, striking on vital parts of its body, permitting a
stranger to ride it, untimely riding, leading it to water
through impassable places and allowing it to enter the
thick forest are offenses punishable with fines." (Section
137)
---------------------------------------------------------
Elephants are classified into four kinds in accordance with
the training they are given: that which is tameable
(damya), that which is trained for war (sannahya), that
which is trained for riding (aupavahya) and rogue elephants
(vyala). (Introduction, Chapter 32, "Training of
Elephants")
---------------------------------------------------------
"Throwing sticks, mud, stones, rods or arrows on elephants,
raising or waving the arms against elephants shall be
treated as an assault [i.e. with the same punishment as
assaulting a human].(Section 234)

More at:
http://www.hinduismtoday.com/archives/2003/7-9/66-68_elephants.shtml

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Dr. Jal Maharaj (03.09.2007 20:06)