Kerala: Elephant fury rages even as mahouts bear brunt

ALAPPUZHA: A horrific incident in which a temple elephant ripped off the right arm of a mahout near here on Sunday brings the focus once again on their unsafe living conditions. There are 2,000 mahouts in the state, and 12 of them are getting treated at various hospitals as a result of 65 such incidents during the last 35 days. Many maimed by elephants live in poverty with no help from authorities or elephant owners. Temple elephant Narayanankutty attacked Prathapan, 48, of Kanjikuzhi on Sunday as he tried to feed him a banana. He needs to spend the rest of his life with a prosthetic hand. 

Maniyan Pillai, 52, of Muthukulam, is bed-ridden for the last five years. He rues he had got benefit neither from the government nor the elephant's owner.  Manoj Ayyappan of Akhila Kerala Aana Thozhilali Union (AKATU), says they were fighting for insurance coverage for long. A year ago owners agreed a Rs 10 lakh insurance for life, but not for the maimed. "Though we demanded a welfare fund, there's no favourable decision," he said. "Many are fed by their wives or other family members."

A proposal for improving service conditions of mahouts is gathering dust since 2010. ‘The villain behind the deadly incidents is the stress of mahouts, and the only remedy is upgrading their standards of living," said V.K. Venkitachalam, of Heritage Animal Task Force, a Thrissur-based NGO. Mahouts in private service need to be paid at par with those in government service. All mahouts should get hardship allowance, accident insurance and bonus for well kept and healthy elephants.  They should also undergo the forest department training to obtain a license.