Deaths due to unnatural causes and low rate of reproduction are turning captive elephants into an endangered species in Kerala, the God’s Own Country where jumbos are an inalienable part of festivals at temples and mosques and an added attraction at programmes like inaugurations and grand receptions.
More than 300 tamed elephants have died in the past four years in Kerala and a majority of them were aged between 20 and 40. Year 2009 alone had seen the death of 81 captive elephants in Kerala. At the same time, reproduction among captive elephants has been on the decline for the past several years and almost no reproduction is taking place presently.
“Kerala has about 700 captive elephants and the number is coming down every passing year,” says Parameswaran Nair, an elephant-lover from Thrissur. “On the one hand, owners and mahouts are killing elephants by putting them to overwork while on the other no reproduction is taking place. Tamed elephants soon could disappear from Kerala in a few years,” he says.
Over a dozen captive elephants have already died in Kerala this year. Veterinary doctors and officials of the State Wild life Department say that majority of the deaths are due to unnatural causes. One of the main reasons behind the high number of jumbo deaths in Kerala is the tendency of mahouts and owners to put the jumbos to work in extreme summer heat.
Doctors say that the main cause of a majority of deaths of elephants is impaction, blockage of digestive tracts due to dehydration and intake of unfamiliar food. They also say that allowance-hungry mahouts and avaricious owners are in the habit of putting ill jumbos to work to cash in on the seasonal demand without providing timely treatment and rest to the animals.
As per the rules, elephants should not be put to work for Ezhunnallippu (parading at temple festivals) for more than six hours a day but this norm is never adhered to by the owners. During the temple festival season between January and May, every elephant is made to work for an average of ten hours a day.
“The jumbos’ ordeals do not end there,” says Mohana Prasad, working against cruelty towards the pachyderms.
“Elephants should be given total rest tomorrow if it works today but this never happens. They keep on travelling from one festival ground to another all through the summer months, resulting in serious health impairment,” he says.
“That is not all. Food habit is a very important thing for elephants. But the mahouts who take them from festival ground to festival ground cannot get the same kind of fodder for the elephant every day. This situation leads to force-feeding, leading to impaction and other kinds of digestive problems which through repetition ensures the jumbo’s eventual death,” Prasad says.
Elephant-lovers say there is a tendency among the owners to let elephants die rather than providing them with treatment with an eye on insurance money. A grown-up elephant costs between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 30 lakh. Though the insurance amount normally is Rs 6 lakh, owners generally prefer to access that sum to spending lakhs of rupees on treatment of the ill jumbos.
The Wildlife Department thinks that this situation coupled with the low rate of reproduction can lead to the disappearance of captive elephants in Kerala in some years. Therefore, the department is considering programmes to promote their reproduction at the Forest Department’s elephant camps in the State.
The Forest Department’s four jumbo camps in State have a total of 27 elephants. Of these, two tuskers and six cows could be used for reproduction, the department thinks. The plan is to keep all these eight elephants in one camp. The department also thinks of including privately held jumbos in camp.