Rules are aplenty for checking cruelty against captive elephants. But unscientific training methods, continuous torture and negligence are taking a toll on captive elephants in the State.
According to the latest statistics provided by the heritage animal task force, 29 elephants have died so far in 2018. If this trend continues elephant population will be substantially reduced to 100 within a decade, fear the elephant lovers.
Ramu, one of the tuskers of Guruvayur Devaswom, died two days ago, due to chronic diseases.
“This is the fourth elephant died in this month alone. Elephant Ramu aged 54, which was found dead at its tethering place inside the Guruvayur elephant camp, was suffering from pulmonary diseases and infection in all legs. Due to unscientific upkeep, many of the 48 elephants in the Punnathur Kotta, Guruvayur Devaswom’s elephant camp, have been suffering from leg infections and pulmonary diseases,” alleges V.K. Venkitachalam, secretary of the animal task force. The task force also alleges incompetence of the veterinarians for the increasing number of deaths.
“We must realise that Asian elephants are on the verge of extinction. Since Zoological parks in developed countries in the US, the UK, EU and Canada are rearing a few elephants under strict management entrance and disease control protocols, longevity is comparatively high when compared to elephant rearing Asian range countries,” said Dr. T.P. Sethumadhavan, Former Director of Entrepreneurship, KVASU & visiting scientist, Smithsonian institution, Washington DC, USA.
“Among captive Asian elephants in the State, erandakettu (impaction) forms more than 70 per cent of the cause of deaths. During the last three decades captive Asian elephant population declined drastically to nearly 400 from 750. Unfortunately not much research works have been done on erandakettu,” he says.
The other elephants died in this month are Mavelikkara Unnikrishnan (54) in Alappuzha, Karuvanchal Ganeshan (19) in Kannur and Channanikkad Vanaja (64) in Kottayam.
Of the 29 deaths this year, nine are in Thrissur. Other deaths are in Kottayam (8), Palakkad (3), Pathanamthitta (1) Ernakulam (4) Kannur (1), Kollam (1), Thiruvananthapuram (1) and Alappuzha (1). Of these four were female elephants and others were male. Total number of elephants in captivity died during 2017 and 2016 were 20 and 24 respectively. Six months ago one of the tallest elephants, Thiruvambadi Sivasundar, died due to this disease.
Erandakettu
Actually erandakettu is a disease symptom. Why elephants are regularly showing this is a researchable issue and based on this appropriate remedial measures need to be suggested. Severe stress coupled with erratic management and feeding practice aggravate the symptoms, experts point out.
Erandakettu is a multifactorial disease manifestation where in animal cannot pass dung for 2-3 months together, which causes rupture of intestine, dehydration and leads to death. In most of the cases prognosis for the chronic diseases are very poor.
Slow eaters
Elephants are slow eaters, which require a lot of roughages like palm leaves. In many cases mahouts used to feed palm leaves in bulk along with the central hard portion. Scarcity of palm leaves forces them to feed coconut leaves. Hard portion of these roughages may obstruct the eight-metre long intestinal tract of elephants. Climatic variation coupled with summer heat stress will also facilitate the situation, say experts.
During festive seasons, animal used to work heavily and compelled to travel long distance by trucks and they are not getting enough exercise. Due to fear of frequent musth incidence, mahouts restrict the water intake of elephants. Moreover due to scarcity of fibrous feed, some of the elephant owners are practising alternate feeding system with rice or a lot of food rich in carbohydrate and proteins.
Impaction is comparatively rare in elephants in zoological parks especially in the United States, European countries, Canada, etc where elephants are fed with hay which is easily digestible and may not make obstruction to the intestine, say Dr. Sethumadhavan.
In order to control the loss of elephants due to impaction, interventions in feeding and management practices have to be done as per captive elephant management rules prevalent in the State. Experts note that scientists need to think of reducing the use of coarse fibre and incorporating green fodder and roughages so as to reduce the digestive disturbances. Research works in this area are comparatively scarce which need to be augmented, they add.
