Uproar in India as captured wild elephant dies in despair

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FEATURE - Uproar in India as captured elephant dies in despair

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INDIA: March 14, 2003

 

 

JASHPUR, India - His skin rubbed raw from chafing against ropes tying his

front and back legs to tree-trunks, the newly caught wild elephant hangs his

head in what looks like abject despair.

 

 

 

A few days later he is dead. Reverentially, the local people dig a deep pit

for him, cover his body with a white sheet, fling in flowers and grimly

start shovelling earth into the grave of an elephant who wildlife

campaigners say was tortured to death.

 

In a country that reveres the elephant as a god, the death of Vasant Bahadur

- roughly translated as " Spring Warrior " - has stirred a national uproar, as

campaigners demand an end to ancient practices used to catch and tame the

huge mammals. The story started in the thickly forested hills of the former

principality of Jashpur, in the central state of Chhattisgarh and around 930

km (580 miles) south-east of New Delhi, when a herd of wild elephants

strayed in from a neighbouring state.

 

Wildlife campaigners say the elephants were driven out of their natural

habitat by deforestation and mining - mainly for iron ore - and went in

search of food.

 

They raided villages in a desperate search for grain and rammed down

mud-walled houses to quench their thirst with home-made alcohol.

 

At least 35 people were trampled or gored to death and the state called in

Parbati Barua, India's only female elephant catcher who learned the trade

from her father, to catch the elephants. Vasant Bahadur was the first one

she caught.

 

" The elephants will be captured and trained by me, and then given to a

government department for use in tourism, patrolling and logging, " said

Barua, a small woman in a red dress and rather unlikely blue flip-flops.

 

Drawing on a family tradition of elephant-taming going back nine

generations, she tracks a herd for up to 15 days on foot, by jeep, or on the

back of one of her two pet elephants.

 

" This is a very dangerous job, but I like it. I've been with elephants since

I was a child. It is a very loveable animal, " said Barua, who caught her

first elephant at the age of 14.

 

But this time, something went wrong. And unusually for such a remote place,

six hours drive from the nearest big town, it was captured on film by the

Wildlife Trust of India.

 

ELEPHANT SPREAD-EAGLED

 

On day one, the film shows what looks like a young elephant, his feet

bleeding, being brought into the clearing which Barua has made her temporary

base.

 

Wildlife experts say Barua is using an ancient method known as " mela

shikar " , where hunters, riding two tame elephants, chase a herd into the

ground, target an elephant and squeeze it from both sides until they can

lasso it and drag it out of the herd.

 

At a film screening in New Delhi, the Wildlife Trust of India shows Vasant

Bahadur wincing as his tusks are sawn off. He is then pulled down with

ropes, spread-eagled, and beaten with rods.

 

Repeatedly he tries to get up, his eyes wide with fear.

 

And then it shows the funeral, followed by a clip of Barua saying simply

that " this one couldn't forget his freedom " .

 

" Some of the methods she is using are extremely archaic, " said Vivek Menon,

executive director for the Wildlife Trust of India. He campaigns for other

methods of handling wild elephants.

 

The Trust says the 25,000 to 27,000 Asian elephants in India should be given

special protected forest reserves.

 

When they stray, they should be driven back into these reserves through

" safe " corridors, identified by satellite mapping. And if they must be

caught, this should be done as humanely as possible, with trained vets on

stand-by.

 

" The moment the elephant is in your hands, you should take every step to

comfort the animal, " said Menon. " And definitely don't truss it up like a

chicken. "

 

Speaking in Jashpur a few days before Vasant Bahadur's death, Barua shrugs

off questions about how miserable the animal looked.

 

" That's very natural. He's lost his independence, " she said, adding

elephants sometimes refuse to eat after being caught.

 

Vasant Bahadur, the skin of his legs and trunk rubbed white from the ropes,

was tied up in a small clump of trees, surrounded by lush green rice fields,

dwarfed by Barua's two tame elephants. He barely stirred, even when his

photograph was taken close-up.

 

NO LIKING FOR PEOPLE

 

Barua was unwilling to discuss her methods for capturing and training

elephants and was visibly not pleased to see us.

 

" I like all animals except homo sapiens, " she explained.

 

Cut off from communications like telephone and e-mail, it is impossible to

get a comment from her after the elephant's death.

 

The Wildlife Trust of India quotes a vet saying the elephant had no internal

injuries but probably died of stress and hunger.

 

The Trust is campaigning for Barua to be stopped - capturing elephants

requires national government permission - and it wants talks on restoring

elephant corridors and creating reserves.

 

But as with everything in India, things move slowly.

 

Wildlife campaigners fear villagers will not wait, that they will take the

law into their own hands and kill the elephants.

 

Said one local villager who looked after Vasant Bahadur: " It would have been

better to shoot it straight away, than kill it slowly. "

 

 

Story by Myra MacDonald

 

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE