Bestial Discrimination

If circus and zoo elephants are to be rehabilitated in the wild, why leave out the ones toiling for private owners?

No one had ever touched Gangaram like this. As she ran her hands over his thick scratchy thighs, moving over to his trunk, Gangaram leaned against her, swaying into her soothing touch, finding peace in the palms of this elephant-whisperer. Standing under a filthy Yamuna Bridge in Delhi, home of the capital’s captive elephants, we stared at the curly-haired woman who was making a mighty elephant swoon, solely with the power of her palms. “These intelligent mammals are chained for hours, unable to step away from their own excreta, forced to drink from the toxic Yamuna, while living under a six-lane highway,” said Elke Riesterer, the visiting elephant whisperer. Speaking sotto voce, she kept running her hands over his hide. Back in 2004, as he gave into her caresses, his rheumy eyes closed.

Those eyes must have split open in shock recently when the Central Zoo Authority ruled that circus and zoo elephants, almost 190 of them, be moved to elephant camps in protected forests. In what is an absurd sleight of mind, the ruling ignores private working elephants like Gangaram and all the gold-showered tuskers of Kerala and Karnataka, whose function is the same as zoo-creatures, to entertain—to say namaste at weddings or carry deities on their backs during Trissur Pooram. Rather than freedom, they will have to continue to breath exhaust fumes and standing for hours on tarred roads that cause dinner-plate sized burns on their feet. Those who flinch when crackers burst below their feet are bludgeoned by the ankush, that pronged weapon wielded by mahouts which causes excruciating pain.

“Temple elephants are controlled by a powerful lobby that has a hold on Kerala and Tamil Nadu. A former CM donated an elephant to the shrines,” says Ashok Kumar, vice chairman, Wildlife Trust of India.  These powerful beasts remain condemned to live in golden chains. Though prized for their ivory tusks, they are not allowed to breed since this keeps the female away from work. Regardless, Peta was quick to pat itself on the back for the success of one of its ‘campaigns’ for zoo animals, and award the Proggy (Progressive) Award to the Central Zoo Authority. Wonder what Peta’s mascot Celina Jaitley, who appeared on the cover of Maxim in a clingy S&M-like outfit to raise awareness for captive pachyderms, has to say about this peculiar half-freedom. A freedom that’s promised to return 190 circus and zoo creatures to the quiet jungles and has left a larger majority of Gangaram and his brotherhood still chained to our cities.

About The Author

Pramila N. Phatarphekar