Fw: Indian elephant Veda press re CUPA in Bangalore

April 9, 2005

The Asian Age, Delhi 7/4/05

India sends gift elephant to die in Armenia winter

- By Kounteya Sinha

Veda is just six years old. And she loves summer. Unfortunately, she won’t get

much of it anymore.

The Indian ministry of environment and forests is sending a six-year-old

elephant calf, Veda, a resident of Bannerghata Biological Park in Bangalore, as

a gift to the Yerevan Zoo in Armenia where sub-zero freezing conditions prevail

for over six months a year.

This decision has now made India’s environmentalists — who say that the elephant

is being sent to a certain death — go up in arms against the ministry. The

proposal to transfer Veda to Armenia was decided in 1999 between the heads of

state of India and Armenia.

Ms Ambika Shukla of the People for Animals (PFA), said, " This young elephant is

being sent to a certain death. The Yerevan Zoo sadly lacks proper housing,

grazing and space needed to support an elephant. Worst of all is its climatic

unsuitability. During these cold bitter months, the elephants are caged in

heated sheds with no opportunity to walk or exercise. Armenia’s natural

vegetation does not have the natural grasses and nutritional requirements for

elephants, available in tropical countries. "

She added: " Yerevan Zoo’s track record is harrowing. One elephant was shot to

death when it escaped from its enclosure in the early 1970s. Another slipped on

the ice and died, in the early 1990s. The third elephant, currently housed

there, has been acquired from Soviet Russia in 1999 and has been in solitary

confinement since. The Yerevan Zoo has no affiliations with any European Zoo

associations or federations and is therefore not required to follow any rules or

regulations. "

Actress and wildlife campaigner Virginia McKenna, founder of the Born Free

Foundation, said, " If Veda does go to Armenia then the responsibility for her

fate rests in the hands of officials from the Indian government. We shall hold

them accountable in the event of any untoward incident. " " If she suffered from

physical or psychological harm or even loss of life, which ministry would take

the responsibility of her death? " asked Ms Suparna Baksi Ganguly of CUPA,

Bangalore.

Dr Raman Sukumar, head of the Asian Elephant Research Centre at the Indian

Institute of Science in Bangalore is unequivocal in his condemnation.

" The elephant is a highly social animal. Any situation whereby an elephant is

sent into a facility that does not provide the opportunity for it to socialise

adequately is highly undesirable. "

Dr Jacob Cheeran, member of India’s Project Elephant Steering Committee and the

Asian Elephant Specialist Group said, " Elephants have to walk long distances to

keep their feet healthy. This is not possible in a country with such a harsh

climate. "

THE HINDU

Date:08/04/2005 URL:

http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/08/stories/2005040818530300.htm

--------

New Delhi

Jumbo gift gets stuck amid protests

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 7. Little `Veda', India's `courtesy gift' to Armenia's

Yerevan Zoo, has managed to create more than a rumble in the corridors of power

in the Capital in the wake of appeals from across the globe asking the Indian

government to prevent the nine-year-old pachyderm from crossing the `seven

seas'.

School children have been rallying for the elephant, e-mailing from the

United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Argentina, America, Spain and Germany. The

female baby elephant from the Bannerghatta National Park, Bangalore, was

promised as a mate to the lonely male elephant in Armenia way back in 1999 by

the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The request was put forward by

the then visiting Armenian president.

However, in December 2004 when the Armenian government asked the pachyderm

to be transported in the middle of sub-zero temperatures there, an Indian

non-government organisation saw red and the process was delayed by four months,

resulting in Veda still being in India.

" Recent surveys show that Yerevan Zoo lacks proper housing space needed to

support an elephant. Worst of all, the sub-zero freezing conditions prevalent

for 4-6 months there will not suit the animal. During these cold bitter months,

the elephants will have no opportunity to walk or exercise. Also, Armenia's

natural vegetation does not have natural grass, leaves, sugarcane, jaggery and

other nutritional requirements of elephants which are available in tropical

countries, " said the vice-president of Compassion Unlimited Plus Action,

Bangalore, Suparna Bakshi Ganguly, the NGO that first opposed the transfer of

the animal.

Meanwhile, a final decision is now pending with the Prime Minister's

Office. Also, the former Union Minister, Maneka Gandhi, has joined the children

efforts to keep the pachyderm at home. In a letter to the Prime Minister early

this month, she said: " Yerevan Zoo's track record has been poor with elephants.

They have no elephants because each time they get them, they die. One elephant

was shot dead when it escaped from its enclosure in early 1970s. One elephant

slipped on the ice and died in early 1990s. This elephant was suffering from

malnutrition and hypothermia. The third elephant, currently housed there has

been acquired from Russia in 1999 and has been housed in solitary confinement

for so many years, Yerevan Zoo has no affiliations with any European zoo

associations or federations and is therefore not required to follow any rules

and regulations. "

Govt urged not to send elephant calf to Armenia zoo

Tripti Nath

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 7

A Bangalore-based animal welfare organisation, Compassion Unlimited

Plus Action (CUPA), has appealed to the government to “cancel its commitment’’

to send a six-year-old female elephant calf to Armenia’s Yerevan zoo that has a

“poor track record with elephants’’. The vice-president and founder trustee of

CUPA, Ms Suparna Bakshi Ganguly, told The Tribune that the elephant population

in the country was dwindling. “We cannot afford to take a chance as the number

of elephants is dropping alarmingly. The number of wild elephants in the country

is about 28,000 and the number of captive elephants is anything between 3,400 to

3,600.’’

CUPA said they had sent copies of the appeal to the Prime Minister’s

Office, Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of

Environment and Forests. They had also sought the intervention of animal rights

activist, Maneka Gandhi.

CUPA has said that the elephant calf, Veda, lives at her birthplace,

the Bannerghatta National Park in Bangalore, in a herd and the environment is

closest to her natural forest habitat. “In view of the financial conditions of

the Yerevan zoo as reported by the UK-based Bornfree Foundation and Prime

Minister Manmohan Singh’s announcement that the government would ban any gift of

animals by the head of State/government to other heads of state/government or

foreign zoos, we have made a fresh appeal. The Ministry of Environment and

Forests has not cancelled the commitment for transfer of Veda to the Yerevan

zoo.’’ Ms Ganguly has warned the government that if the elephant calf dies due

to emotional and physical stress, they will hold the government “accountable’’.

Reacting to the appeal, Dr B.R. Sharma, Member Secetary, Central Zoo

Authority, told The Tribune that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had

promised to send Veda on a request made by the Yerevan zoo for pairing a male

Asiatic elephant.

Friday, April 8, 2005, Chandigarh, India

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