Alappuzha: The captive elephants in the state are struggling to survive and their death rate is increasing.
Two elephants, Mavell-ikara Unnikrishnan, 54, owned by Travancore Devaswom Board, and Karuv-anchal Ganesan, 19, owned by a private individual in Kannur, died on Thursday.
According to activists, the elephants fall prey to improper handling by their custodians, including for parading and hard jobs to make quick bucks. During the festival season, they are made to walk long distances in the scorching sun without proper rest and diet.
Mr V.K. Venkatachalam, secretary, Heritage Animal Task Force, said that the elephants die mostly due to pulmonary diseases and torture wounds. Individual veterinarians used to experiment with medicines on the ailing elephants. If an elephant falls ill, a board of veterinarians should be constituted like in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, he said.
He alleged that Unnikri-shnan was suffering from various diseases, including arthritis, tuberculosis, wounds of chaining and experimental veterinary treatment.
Last Monday, an elephant Kunchiravila Surya Narayanan, 34, was found dead in Kollam inside a private property after suffering from sudden shock of tranquilization by a veterinarian named Aravind.
Karuvanchaalu Ganes-han, which was under treatment by P.B. Giridasan, succumbed to multiple internal injuries caused by restless work and torture.
The physical condition of seven elephants - Ukkan Kunchu, Pampady Rajan, Chirakkal Kalidhasan, Th-iruvanikkavu Kurumbil-aavu Devkrisna, Managal-am kunnu Karnan, Mang-alamkunnu Ganapathi, Go-saikkunnu Kutty Sanka-ran Cherpulassery Parth-an- continues to be critical.
This year, 27 elephants have died so far while the number was 20 last year and 24 in 2016. The condition of seven elephants remains critical. The state is left with only 373 captive elephants now.
The district-wise death toll is : Thrissur- 8, Kottay-am-7, Palakkad-3, Pathana-mthitta-1, Ernakulam-4, Kannur-1 , Kollam-1, Thir-uvananthapuram-1 and Alappuzha- 1.
