Does Kerala need Pamela Anderson to teach CM about jumbo love?
They occupy the pride of place, two with raised trunks guarding the national and state insignias, on the Kerala government’s logo and the popular Sree Krishna temple at Guruvayur with 57 elephants, in the 14 to 70 age group, including one gifted by former Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa, runs a home for captive elephants. But God’s Own Country is really no home for the animal, endearingly named Appu and made the prancing mascot of the Asian Games, when last held in India in 1982.
An appeal by the actress Pamela Anderson, as ambassador of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), has become essential to remind Malayalees, who have a fetish for the elephant, though cruel to the animal in several ways, to provide adequate health cover and care. The iconic Thrissur Pooram, the annual temple festival in the state’s cultural capital, where nearly 100 elephants are paraded, for the finale on April 29, may have gone without the colourful spectacle if state CM Oommen Chandy heeded her appeal and picked up her offer to pay for and provide 30 life-sized, realistic and portable elephants made of bamboo and papier mache to replace live ones.
There were no takers and Malayalees, creating fake profiles, showered abuses on Anderson’s Facebook page. Some suggested that she visit Kerala once to view the spectacular sight at the festival that will change her mind. The parade accompanied by traditional percussionists is the main attraction of the Thrissur Pooram festival, being held since 1798, and has over the years become a major event on the tourism calendar of the state.
The Kerala government, while turning down her appeal, declared that the age old conventions in parading the elephants will be followed. A bench of the Kerala High Court comprising judges AM Shaffique and PV Asha also took a similar view in its order rejecting a plea, in a public interest litigation, to restrain the organisers from using elephants. Removing the richly caparisoned elephants from the Thrissur Pooram would have robbed it of both bustle and charm. But in caring for the elephants, the insensitive and bureaucratic response of the state is that guidelines regarding the maintenance of captive elephants are in place. On paper, though.
Cruelty to the animal is not the only issue. If the tuskers are treated poorly, the safety of those coming to see them at the temple festivals are compromised as it happened at the Thrissur Pooram itself, a couple of years ago, when a young elephant, Unnippillil Kalidasan, ran amok triggering panic for over an hour leaving 62 hurt in a stampede. The Thrissur based Heritage Animal Task Force (HATF) pointed out that the animal was in "musth", in heat in the veterinarian’s lexicon, and should not have been paraded going by the guidelines for parading elephants at the festival.
Keeping that in mind, the elephants were run through a fitness examination a day ahead of the Pooram festivities this year. That is perhaps why the festival went off without an agitated elephant running amok. This does not deter though from the issue raised by Anderson and other animal rights activists groups.
Conscious of the manner in which the elephants, particularly those owned privately, are treated the Kerala Forest Department did, some years ago, fit 700 odd pachyderms in the state with microchips but do not have updated record either of their location or whether the animals are alive or dead. The Kerala Captive Elephants Rules of 2003, amended in 2012, prohibit unskilled mahouts (elephant keepers), notorious for beating the animal with sticks and iron rods, from handling captive elephants, making them walk on tarred roads between 11am and 3pm and transporting them in trucks for more than five hours without a break to ensure the welfare of captive elephants.
Most often the rules for the ethical handling of the animals are flouted or ignored. HATF, focused on elephant welfare, has found several cases of neglect compounded by cruelty, and discovered deaths are more by the time they are 40 while the average life span of an elephant in the wild is 80. Captive elephants seldom get an opportunity to breed. What makes things worse is there are hardly any doctors or veterinarians competent to treat the sick animals.
Elephant owners make a killing earning at least one lakh rupees a day by hiring out the animal for temple festivals while the daily feed and related expenses is about Rs 2,500. Not only are the animals deprived of adequate water and food they are also deprived of sleep. The owners are also unmindful of the animal being made to stand for six to eight hours at a temple festival after an arduous journey by a truck so often reducing the elephant’s lifespan.
Hopes of the animal lovers are now pinned on another Pubic Interest Litigation filed by six organisations in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on the use of captive elephants in religious events, fairs and joyrides because of "untold cruelty". Only on April 24 judges Dipak Misra and PC Pant issued notices to the central government, the Animal Welfare Board and nine states to respond on what they are doing to end the torture using "extremely cruel devices" like a belt trap and metal clamps which is quite commonly used on elephants at temple festivals in Kerala. If only the Malayalee, including Oommen Chandy, would follow what is in this PIL if they do not want listen to Anderson.