A female elephant, part of the Jumbo Circus, died in an isolated building near Srirangapatna where it had been confined along with four other female pachyderms for the past five months.
Fifty-one-year-old Chanchal, who had showcased her skills in several hundred circus performances, was anaemic. She also lacked medical attention, senior forest officials said.
The Jumbo Circus had registered the elephant in Tamil Nadu. It had brought five female elephants to Mysuru for a performance a few months ago. Later, the company confined the pachyderms in an isolated building on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, near Mandya border.
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Since then, Chanchal had been living in a pitiable condition with four other elephants — Chaya, Kumari, Roopa and Lakshmi. Her legs had been tied to pillars with nylon ropes.
The Hindu had highlighted the issue in a report ‘Weak and in pain, five female elephants cry for attention in Mandya’, on October 28.
Chanchal had also been suffering from age-related issues. She fell ill two weeks ago and her condition worsened on Wednesday evening, when she collapsed and died.
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According to an official, the place where the elephants were confined was unhygienic. As Chanchal died due to alleged ignorance and ill-treatment, the Forest Department has decided to conduct an inquiry into her death. Javed Mumtaj, Deputy Conservator of Forests (Mandya), told The Hindu . “We are waiting for the post-mortem report to ascertain the cause of death.”
The post-mortem was conducted on Thursday.Negligence
A group of animal rights activists from Mysuru visited the building and alleged that Chanchal was not given proper treatment. The circus company had been giving herbal medicines to the elephant, an activist said.
When contacted, Mr. Mumtaj said, “The mahouts [of the circus company] are experts in herbal medicines.”