India is home to diverse variety of flora and fauna. Asiatic Lion, Great Indian Rhinoceros, Leopard, Royal Bengal Tiger, Chinkara and Asian Elephant are few of the many chivalrous and majestic creatures our wildlife possess. But, we fail to realise the importance of what we have, and tend to exploit it. And the shocking part is, very few people take the initiative to put an end to such vicious acts.
One big example of animal exploitation in our country is Temples of Kerala. Liz Jones from Mail Online made a special report laying bare the unimaginable cruelty faced by Asian Elephants at Guruvayur Temple in Kerala, southern India. She was accompanied by Duncan McNair, the London lawyer who founded the non-government organisation Save The Asian Elephants (STAE) in January, and Dr Nameer, a professor and Head of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Kerala.
You will be shocked to know how inhumanly these animals are treated. Here are few shocking facts about how these elephants are ‘trained’ for festivals and noisy celebrations.
- They don’t look like living breathing animals. The look like statues or stuffed animals which are made to stand perfectly for show purpose.
- Their hind feet and and front legs are bound in chains to a stump and a tree respectively, cutting into their flesh.
- They cannot lie down, cannot stretch their legs and cannot reach the water butt, which is empty anyway.
- Some elephants have been chained to a particular spot for over 20 years.
- Their hind leg hangs at a terrible angle and they wobble on three legs, all chained.
- Their legs are broken deliberately to subdue them.
- They are tortured and beaten with iron bard if they fail to perform perfectly in front of spectators.
- Female elephants are not taken to festivals and hence they stay tied to one spot without moving an inch for over 35 years.
- From October to May, one elephant takes part in 100 to 150 festivals. They travel 3,720 miles in three months on a flat-bed truck. They are surrounded by thousands of people, noise, firecrackers.
- Elephants are routinely temporarily blinded, to make them wholly dependent on the mahout.
- Male elephants are given injections to suppress the hormones when they are ready to mate. Three elephants died due to these this year.
- They are kept in a tight closed cage and children often throw rocks at them.
- They are not given enough food and water.
This video shows one such elephant tied up in an uncomfortable position for past so many years.
According to Liz, out of all the animal exploitation cases she has seen across the world, this has by far been the worse.
Out of 25,000 wild elephants left in India, 4,000 are captives, out of which 80% are in Kerala. Liz is doing her 100% to free these poor animals by making a desperate plea for their release, and it’s high time we start thinking about it too.
News Source: Mail Online