Kerala: Collector-led panels endanger lives
In the last two months there were 153 incidents of captive elephants running amok.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The number of civilians killed in elephant violence in the state in 2018 (four) is just two short of those dead in terrorist violence in Kashmir during the same period. But here is why the danger to civilians from angry elephants is far more than the number of killed suggests: in the last two months there were 153 incidents of captive elephants running amok.
Still, the state does not consider captive elephant management to be of any importance. The district-level elephant protection committees, supposed to convene at least once a month during the festival season between November and June and examine the fitness of elephants lined up to be paraded during festivals, are not being called. And whenever they are called, the meetings violate SC guidelines.
It is the responsibility of these committees to ensure that the elephants are given adequate rest, food and water. They should also make sure that elephants in ‘musth’ and those that are sick and pregnant are not used in festivals. “With the committees virtually dead, elephants that are hugely in demand, no matter whether they are in 'musth' or sick, are taken from one festival venue to the other without food and sleep,” said A.G. Babu, the Animal Welfare Board representative in the Kottayam and Ernakulam committees. “Is it any wonder that these beasts are angry,” he asked.
Two days ago an overworked elephant (Cher-plassery Neelakantan) brutally wounded a man bathing in a pond. A day ago a popular festival beast, Thiruvambady Shi-vasundar, collapsed in the corner of Thiruvambady temple in Thrissur after going without food for two months. The committees were in force since 2012. However, it was a SC verdict in 2015 that gave them more teeth by including in its composition a member of the State Animal Welfare Board. In certain districts, the panels were convened without informing the Animal welfare Board member and the Forest Department representative. At times district collectors, who head these committees, are forced to call a meeting.
Take for instance the meeting of the Idukki committee scheduled for March 16. The collector had to after the committee’s Animal welfare Board member, M.N. Jayachandran, questioned a temple decision to increase the number of elephants to be paraded at its annual festival, which is prohibited by rules. All captive elephants had to be registered with this panel within six months of SC order. This was not done. But the ‘elephant contractor’-‘festival committee’-bureaucracy nexus is so powerful that festival organisers have refused to provide a list of elephants that will be employed for festivals.