Elephants on the Edge
Anne Marij de Koning visits elephant training centres in Kerala, where elephants captured from the wild are trained using rather inhuman methods. The animal activist pleads for humane methods of training that respects the right of animals to live a life of dignity and respect—a trait that humans too often forget is equally shared by all creatures—big or small
An elephant carrying its own chains
For Indians, the elephant is not just another animal. When you think of an elephant in connection with India, you quickly think of the elephant-headed god Ganesha, one of the best known and most widely worshipped deities in Hinduism. In the Hindu tradition, Ganesha is revered as the Lord of Beginnings and the Lord of Obstacles.
Holy touch
The elephant is regarded as sacred and most temples have a temple elephant. During the festivals, the temple elephants are decorated with gold plated caparisons, bells and necklaces. The elephants are brought to the temple premises where they are stationed throughout the day. It is common to see elephants give a ‘holy touch’ with their trunks on people’s heads, after which people make offerings to the elephant either in cash or as food. Wild elephants are usually captured and then domesticated, primarily to be used as temple elephants and for festivals.
The Savagery amidst the Beauty
Beside a beautiful river surrounded by mountains and nature, four elephants relax and enjoy their time in the water. They are being washed by their trainers and shutter-happy tourists are busy clicking away, their ooohs and aaahs renting the air as they carefully try to touch the elephants. The two small elephants are of course, the tourists’ favourite, especially when they splash some water with their trunks and intertwine their trunks with each other. That’s the so called ‘elephant kraal’, where the elephants are washed every morning. Because of the beautiful surroundings and the appeal of the elephants, you forget to listen to the shouts of the cleaners in Malayalam and their use of wooden sticks to force the elephants to get up after a wash and prodding their mouths with a hooked stick to make them pose for photographs.
To see how the temple elephants live and how the trainers take care of them in the training centers, we visited three centers in Kerala. We first visited the Kodanad centre, where the elephants which had just been washed were staying (at least that’s what we thought). Despite chains on their feet, the elephants were walking free and some of them were doing some work like replacing branches. Of course the trainers stayed constantly with them to keep an eye on them. Also present was a baby elephant there which was captured in a small cage. Kodanad is more a care centre than a training centre. So, we went to another camp called Kafrykaad, two kilometers away from Kodanad.
Captured elephants at Punnathurkotta training centre
Arriving at Kafrykaad training centre made us happy in the beginning because we thought we saw an elephant walking free in a big forest. But the moment we came closer we saw that wasn’t the case. The elephant was chained to a tree with just a 50 cm chain and hence it had no space to walk or move. The elephant had some branches in front of its feet to eat but it had no access to water. While standing there and taking pictures of the chained elephant, a man from the training centre protested that we couldn’t stand there. He told us that the elephant could be potentially “dangerous”, as it had been chained for a few years now.
Later on, we heard an elephant scream and went back to Kodanad. We saw two more elephants –the ones that had earlier been washed, being chained to a tree by their trainer. We wondered why. So we came closer to the place where the trainers were chaining the elephants and asked them why they were doing so.
Born Free, Forever Chained
“The elephants are chained the whole day and they are only free to walk in the morning and the late afternoon when they are being washed.” It was so shocking for us to see that the elephants were chained and you could see that the little elephant was really traumatized because it made rocking motion movements with its head (which is proved to be a sign of traumatized elephants by different researchers such as G.A. Bradshaw in his book ‘Elephants on the Edge’).
Chained temple elphants as entertainment
As we wanted to know more about the care of elephants in the training centers, we visited Punnathurkotta, which is actually the biggest training centre in Kerala with 63 temple elephants.
Because of the sacred associations evoked by temple elephants, we expected better treatment in the training centre this time. But the moment we got there, it appeared that we were in for a disappointment.
Even before we entered the centre, we saw around ten elephants chained to trees with their back and front legs, without any space to move. Later, we discovered that all the 63 elephants were chained onto a tree or a big stone with their front and back legs. Although some of the elephants had access to water; most of them did not. That was clearly insufficient, when you consider that elephants should eat 150 to 200 kilograms per day and that they need 80-150 litres of water.
The elephants were emaciated, some of them had big wounds on their feet because of the chains and most of the elephants were making rocking movements with their heads. One of the trainers said that, every day five elephants visit the temple and that they are also used for different festivals. The rest of the time they are chained to a tree with a small quantity of food and if they are lucky with some water to their access. When we asked why they chained them, one of the trainers replied, “I would also rather see them in the wild, but then people can’t visit this centre.”
Screaming elephant at Kafrykaad Training Centre
A Life of Dignity
I am horrified to see elephants chained to a tree. Back in the Netherlands, we have zoos where elephants and other animals are also captured and relocated from their natural surroundings. I find even this deplorable and hence I don’t even visit zoos. But the plight of the elephants in the elephant training centers is pathetic. As a lover of animals, I am pained that this is a form of entertainment for tourists and a revenue spinner. While the tourists are happy clicking way, the poor elephants are reduced to being passive actors in what seems like a theatre of the absurd!
While I do understand the traditional use of elephants as part of the temple rituals, I certainly feel that the animals deserve to be treated in a humane manner. In our arrogance as the most evolved species, let us not forget that all living creatures are interrelated in the web of life and animals too have every right to a life of dignity and respect. It is not just a human right; but a right of all living creatures—great or small.
