Outfit demands high level probe into elephant torture

Animal rights group Heritage Animal Task Force has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the alleged torture and death of captive jumbos by festival organisers in Kerala.
The Thrissur-based outfit sent a letter to the Prime Minister, who is also the Chairman of the National Board for Wildlife, requesting a high level inquiry into the issue.
"During 2015, a total of 11 captive elephants died due to torture and neglect near festival places in the state," the outfit alleged in the letter.
As many as 383 elephants had so far been ran amok in 3057 incidents in 14 districts of Kerala during the period, the letter, released to media, said.

"A total of 14 persons had been killed by the captive elephants last year in the state. Of these, 9 were mahouts and others include a veterinarian, an elephant owner, a car driver, a vegetable vendor and an ex-service man," the letter said.
However, the Kerala government had not initiated any comprehensive inquiry into these incidents, it said.

A high level inquiry should be conducted into these kinds of deaths of elephants and human beings, it said, adding the festival organisers, which rule the festival places by parading musth effected jumbos, were responsible for such casualties.
"The Kerala Government remain as a mute spectator even after the Supreme Court had ordered for strict implementation of Elephant Parade Rules with effect from 18th August 2015," it said.

The state government set up an elephant reserve at
Gandhari in Gomati district for better conservation of the jumbos, whose population was dwindling in the state. The reserve is spread over 123.8 sq km area.
Just 30 to 40 years ago, elephants had never been seen in inhabited areas in Agartala, forest officials said. The pachyderms started invading human habitations after the cutting down of forests for construction of a hydel power project on the Gomati river.
With the loss of their habitat, the elephants started migrating to Bangladesh where forests were abundant.
Gupta said that a large number of elephants had migrated to the Chittagong hill tracts in Bangladesh from the Gomati Wild Life Sanctuary.

There was a time, according to British surveyor John Hunter's report, when elephants outnumbered humans in the kingdom during the colonial times and it was the reason why the colonizers did not consider taking administrative control of the region.