A captive male elephant which fell into a marsh near Kochi early Thursday morning died in the afternoon at the end of a 13-hour ordeal during which the callousness of officials, inexperience of the rescue workers and the brutality of the mahouts to the animal were exposed.
Ayyappan, the tusker owned by the Sankaramkulangara Devaswom at Poonkunnam Thrissur, had run amok while it was engaged in the Ezhunnallippu ritual at the Kannangatt Devi temple at Pambayimoola in Edakkochi on the outskirts of the Kochi city around 1.00 am on Thursday.
After running for about two kilometres sowing panic in the area, during which five people suffered injuries, the elephant reached the brink of the Kochi backwaters where it partially destroyed a fishing harbour shed. Amidst this, the elephant got entangled in fishing nets and fell into the marsh on the brink of the backwaters, local residents said.
Members of the Elephant Squad, who had reached the spot, said all efforts by the tusker to get out of the marsh failed as the mud pit was deep and probably because of the injuries it had suffered during the fall and due to the nets entangled in its legs. However, no serious efforts were made till 10.00 am on Thursday to bring the elephant out of the marsh.
Efforts to help the fatigued elephant to the shore using cranes, straps and ropes had started only late in the morning. Amidst this, the mahouts could be seen torturing the tusker with their sticks and hooks to force it to walk up to the shore from the mud-pit. The police present on the spot had nothing to do but to control the crowd.
Callousness on the part of the authorities was obvious as veterinary doctors had reached the spot and necessary medicines including glucose had been brought only by 11.00 am. Amidst all this, the only relief the elephant had been getting was the water being hosed down on its body to keep the temperature down.
The bids to help the elephant to walk up to the shore using straps and cranes failed at least three times, local residents said, adding that the rope used to lift the tusker from the mud had snapped making it fall back into the marsh. “During these efforts, the elephant’s head could have struck some stone which could have been the cause of death,” said a local man.
The rescuers had managed to bring the elephant on to the shore using ropes tied around its neck after 2.00 pm but its life could not be saved. Experts in elephant health questioned the decision to drag the elephant out of the marsh using crane by tying the rope around its neck.