Elephantine fears

Elephants entering northern Chhattisgarh from neighbouring states have been creating havoc. But Chief Minister Raman Singh has reason to smile. As he told the Assembly, the fact that elephants had returned to Chhattisgarh after 100 years endorses the fact that the state has the best forests and habitat to support them. To which a senior Congress member, Kawasi Lakma, quipped that elephants may have returned to Chhattisgarh after 100 years but Singh should ensure that Mayawati does not. The elephant is the symbol of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party, which currently has just one member in the Chhattisgarh Assembly. Singh was quick to clarify: the elephants to which he was referring were not Mayawati's.