Survival problems of Indian Elephants
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is domesticated a very long ago and has become a social animal like
cattle, dog etc. Indians have lots of respect, admiration, love and
consider the animal next to God as one of their Gods Ganesha is in the
shape of the elephant and also called many times as the elephant god.
All most all the temples in South India have their own elephants kept
in the temple with all their care taken by the temples. In Kerala the
famous Guruvayur temple has more than 50 elephants in their custody
most of being offered by the devotees.
In olden India the elephant was used as a war material, similar to the
present day mechanized tanks and were always at the fore front of any
war fought by the Indian kings. When Alexander invaded the north
Indian Punjab, his soldiers were flabbergasted by the sight of the
trained elephants and ran away initially fearing these animal tanks.
In olden India a king is famous by the number of elephants he used to
possess. The elephant can move on terrain other animals fear to tread
like mountains, jungles, rivers and jungles, steep climbs and can
carry loads which no other animal or man can do. It can ferry around
huge weights across large distance and also can drag much large loads.
It seems that elephants were used in Chola period to bring huge stone
boulders from long distances when their famous temples were built in
Tanjore and Gangai konda cholapuram.
A very good relation existed between the beast and the man from time
immemorial and the Indians were able to catch the elephant and then
train them. These animals are very intelligent and are supposed to
have very good memories and remember the family members, the Mahouts
(the elephant handler), the owner of the elephant, his family members,
its own territory and also has a very good sense of smell and hearing.
It has very small eyes and could not see much distance which is
substituted by its sense of smell and hearing which could locate
enemies from distance. They have the biggest brains of any known
animals in the world which could weigh up to 5 kilo grammes. The
elephant can grow up to a weight of 5 tons and a height of 11 feet.
Elephant's trunk, which is extended nose is very useful and act like a
hand to it. It uses it trunk to collect water (it can collect about 5
liters of water in it) and pours it into its mouth. It can also lift
and drag loads; it can even lift very small objects by its trunk. In
Kerala the mahouts train then to lift needles placed in the ground
with its trunk.
Elephant's ears are quite big and are used like fans to cool itself
and help in detecting even the smallest noise. It is very thin and big
and helps in cooling the blood flowing in them which when circulated
back cools the body temperature. Their ears can hear sound waves
beyond human hearing and could recognize other elephants from the
sounds they generate.
Only male elephants have tusks. Elephant's tusks also called ivory is
nothing but its own teeth and grows for ever and some times growing up
to a length of 1.5 meters and are very strong. It can use the tusks
for carrying loads and most often in forests timber is transported by
the elephant on the tusks. Most of the killings of the elephants were
for the sake of tusks which fetches very good price in India and
International markets since intricate carving can be made in the
ivory. In India making ivory sculpture was done for generations and
intricate statues were carried out in ivory. Previous day's ivory was
taken out only when the elephant dies of natural death. But now a days
they are killed by poachers for the ivory. One Veerappan , a poacher
cum brigand killed hundreds of elephants in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka
forests of India. This fellow had the backing of the local people who
were also from his own community since he used to help them
financially.
The elephant in natural surroundings lives in herds in which one male
will have some females and younger ones. Grown males normally driven
out of the clan and roam until they have their own family which the
get or earn by fight and kill strategy.
Elephants have no future since they are huge and consume a very large
meal of vegetation, trees, grass and roots and are always at a
confrontation with the humans who occupy the area in which they roam
about. Also the elephants many times come and occupy the lands of
human where these people cultivate rice, vegetables, sugar cane etc
and destroy their lively hood. So fights occur between in them and the
net result is that the elephant is driven out or killed. Even though
there are laws for the protection for the animals , its clock is
ticking and may not lost for another 25 years in the wild and only the
captive elephants in private hands, temples and zoos will be the show
pieces for the children of the future.