There were no sounding of trumpets or tolling of bells. Then, just over two months ago, news about ‘the herd arriving’ began trickling on to our social feeds. Painter Dhruvi Acharya Instagrammed a white elephant with painted red flowers, designer Anushka Khanna went millennial pink, and fashion maven Tarun Tahiliani posed with a regal black Airavat, piquing interest about #elephantparadeindia.
For the world’s largest elephant-themed public art exhibition, the India début of Elephant Parade has been surprisingly low-key, despite the event bringing together two of the biggest international conservation outfits: the Copenhagen-based social enterprise and Elephant Family, the charity co-founded by late philanthropist Mark Shand, the brother of the Duchess of Cornwall. The two organisations joined hands last year and have come to the country on a rather timely note: the UK-India Year of Culture. Over the last two weeks, Weekend has been closely following the making of Elephant Parade India and here’s everything you need to know about the travelling show that kicks off with a spectacular party in Jaipur today.
The big race
Elephant Family co-founder Mark Shand and HRH The Prince of Wales view the Elephant Parade London herd.
After 21 successful exhibitions across the world and a profitable showing with the Elephant Family in London in 2010 (that raised over £4 million), the 2017-18 edition of the Parade has an important motive: to raise awareness about and aid in the protection of 101 endangered elephant corridors across India. And this year’s fund-raising challenge was flagged off by the second edition of Travels to my Elephant — a five-day, 500-km race from Jodhpur to Jaipur, aboard chagdas (the Gujarati three-wheelers), Royal Enfield motorbikes, and vintage Jeeps.
Eighty five adventure junkies, including Ruth Powys-Ganesh, CEO of the Elephant Family, Indian-American designer Waris Ahluwalia, Canadian actor Joshua Jackson and British politician Zac Goldsmith set out last Tuesday to raise £1 million for Asia’s endangered pachyderms. They took with them two elephant sculptures to be painted by local children along the way. Their journey will end tonight in Jaipur, where a herd of brightly-painted sculptures (created by talents like Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Vikram Goyal and Christian Louboutin) and a gala dinner await them. The celebrations will be followed by previews in Kolkata and Delhi, before the big launch in Mumbai in February next year.
Early days
“It’s a beautiful example of bringing the story to a new country and tapping into incredible local artists and people, who have their own following, to raise further awareness for the need for elephant conservation,” says Mike Spits, the founder of Elephant Parade. It all started in the spring of 2006 when Mike’s father, Marc, spoke to him about his meeting with Mosha, a spirited three-legged baby Asian elephant, while on holiday in Thailand. Marc was at Friends of the Asian Elephant Hospital (FAE), the world’s first elephant hospital, based in Lampang, when he was introduced to the seven-month-old who had stepped on a landmine and lost part of her right leg. “My father and I were inspired and determined to help her, but instead of just writing a cheque, we thought of constructing something bigger. That’s how the idea of Elephant Parade was born,” he explains.
The father-son duo soon discovered that the injured calf was part of a larger global problem. Today, there are less than 50,000 Asian elephants remaining. The majority is found in India, where, according to the Elephant Census 2017, the population has decreased by 10% in the last five years, to just 27,312 across 23 states.
Bringing the Elephant Parade to a country that has a strong cultural connect with the mighty tusker was different and exciting, says Ruth Powys-Ganesh. Explaining how the latest edition will be different, she shares that from an artistic point of view they are seeing the highest calibre of art. “The intricacy, craftsmanship and beauty surpasses all other exhibitions, and there have been 21 of them!” So far, the sculptures have been auctioned by institutions like Christie’s and Sotheby’s for a global average price of £7,000 per elephant. The Parade’s diversified product range also includes merchandise such as T-shirts, caps, jewellery and bags (available at elephantparadewebshop.com).
Conservation
While art exhibits, private events and dinners will mark celebrations across the country, the underlying thread of the Parade is to build mainstream support to save the Asian elephant and protect 101 corridors in India. Though we have revered the gentle giants for long, we have also shied away from recognising that they are much like us — they feel love, visit friends, and mourn the passing of family. It’s no wonder that videos of elephants interacting are so popular online; they remind us of ourselves. But, unfortunately, every year, we lose over 300-400 due to human-elephant conflicts.
The only way to prevent this is by honing India’s cultural connect with them, which we seem to have lost today, says Prerna Bindra, author of the hard-hitting book, The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis . She has dedicated an entire chapter to how we are losing them fast. “It’s an entirely man-made conflict,” she says. “Their habitats are being severely threatened by iron ore mining across some of their finest habitats in Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and Orissa. We are also losing out on water sources and corridors,” adds the former member of the National Board of Wildlife. And she can’t help but point out the irony. “On the one hand we worship them, and on the other we abuse and poach them. Our deep-rooted cultural significance must be revived,” she says.
Another strident voice is Shekar Dattatri. The award-winning filmmaker underlines that the romance of elephant keeping is largely illusory. “What is shocking is that the keeping of these gentle, sensitive and social animals in captivity is still permitted. We can only truly claim to love elephants when the practice of keeping them in temples or parading them at festivals is stopped forever, and all the elephants presently in captivity are rehabilitated in spacious rescue centres where they can live a chain-free existence without abuse,” he says.
The 2013 UK National Tour
Dattatri, who is presently gathering material for a short film on the impact of highways on these animals, expresses urgency to secure the corridors and devise site specific ways to deal with conflict. “Given that most protected areas have become fragmented and disconnected from other protected areas, elephants often have no choice but to come out of reserves in search of food and water, especially during pinch periods. When they do, they are harassed by mobs throwing stones and bursting crackers,” he says.
Meanwhile, Elephant Family, which funded the 2017 publication of Right of Passage (by The Wildlife Trust of India, in which 101 elephant corridors were identified across key regions), has conservationists from across the country contributing their expertise. “The conservation mission is severely under-funded. At the start of October 2017, we received £4.1 million worth of applications: 19 out of the 49 applications were from India, with 17 of them addressing the human-elephant conflict in some form,” says Ganesh.
On ground
Prajna Chowta, one of India’s few women mahouts, and the force behind Bengaluru-based conservation outfit, Aane Mane Foundation (started in 2000), recently developed ElephanTTrackinG, a remote monitoring system. It tracks and monitors elephants, and can be used as an early warning system to prevent conflicts. Besides books and films on conservation, Chowta has been working on numerous projects: studying migratory patterns at the Indo-Burma border, elephant management methods in Karnataka and even research on Andaman elephants. “Forest officers and mahouts were a bit surprised when I began handling elephants. However, over the years, I have been accepted by many of them and have had frequent occasions when they valued my judgement and experience,” she says.
But it’s not just conflict-ridden issues that such outfits deal with. The enslavement of elephants for performances, manual labour, processions, entertainment and street begging continues to be a problematic issue. Today, nearly 3,500 elephants are held in captivity in India, points out Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder & CEO of Wildlife SOS, an NGO working against animal cruelty, which rescues wildlife in distress and tries to resolve man-animal conflicts while promoting the need for habitat protection. “Internationally, the plight of African elephants gets a lot of attention and their conservation thereby receives support from around the world. We hope that the Elephant Parade garners similar attention for the Asian elephants,” he says, explaining how all their rehabilitated animals have been rescued from cruel working conditions. “Such issues can be addressed through rescuing abused animals, spreading awareness among tourists and teaching more humane, scientific and ethical management practices,” he adds. Apart from running rehabilitation centres, other initiatives at Wildlife SOS comprise their recently-launched elephant hotline (9971699727) for people to report such cases; Forest Watch, the anti-poaching unit; and initiatives to turn poachers into protectors by creating sustainable alternative livelihoods.
Social connect
The Internet is also becoming a tool to raise awareness. Like the recent footage released by The Guardian , showing five elephants calves being shot with sedatives and captured in Zimbabwe to sell to zoos, or the YouTube video of Wildlife SOS’ rehabilitation of Gajaraj, a 70-year-old temple elephant. Scroll through Elephant Parade’s Instagram account, @elephantparadefan, and you will see a number of engaging videos showcasing behind-the-scenes shots of prior shows. “In the last three years, we have seen a swing in public awareness towards the use of elephants in tourism. Social media has spread information very quickly, to be aware of cruelty associated with captive elephants used for entertainment. The public is much more savvy and less tolerant as a result,” says Ganesh.
Elephant Parade is a campaign that encourages participation, adds Spits. “The herd of multi-coloured, life-size statues stand out wherever located. People naturally start snapping photos and sharing them, and so in a fun, informative and inspiring way, they become part of the story to raise awareness,” he says, explaining how the movement has, over the years, roped in several influencers across disciplines, and even royalty. During a visit to the Mark Shand Foundation last year, even the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge decorated an elephant sculpture, while others like singer Katie Perry and business magnate Sir Richard Branson have shown their support. By engaging their following, adding credibility and boosting awareness, they have put their name to raising awareness for the Asian elephant.
