Heritage Animal Task Force has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order a high-level enquiry into the alleged premature death of seven captive elephants in Kerala since January this year.
In its letter to Mr. Modi, the Thrissur-based animal rights outfit requested that a high-level enquiry be ordered into the “intentional torture” of elephants in the State. It alleged that these jumbos died due to mismanagement and unethical practices of elephant contractors.
Jumbo deaths
With the death of ‘Konark Ganapathi’, a 40-year-old jumbo near Kunnamkulam in Thrissur district on Saturday, the total number of captive elephants which died in Kerala has risen to seven so far this year, the outfit said.
Two captive elephants had died in Thiruvananthapuram district in January and four in Thrissur earlier during the June-September period, Task Force secretary V K Venkatachalam said.
“All these elephants were young and healthy and below the age of 45,” he said in a recent letter sent to the Centre, seeking its intervention.
Suppressing ‘musth’
The outfit alleged that though ‘musth’ is common among elephants between November and April, many elephant contractors, with the help of veterinarians, provide drugs to the pachyderms to suppress their ‘musth’ during this period to use them for festivals and other money-spinning purposes.
“This unethical practice of giving medicines to control and induce ‘musth’ causes various types of physical and mental disorders among jumbos,” it said.
Banned weapons like ‘mullu changala’ (sharp chains) and sharp-edged iron poles are still used in the State to bring elephants under control, it said.
