Elephant economics rule in Kerala fests التداول الالي يشكل الخطر الاكبر على بنوك الاستثمار (MGI Capital) Elephant economics rule in Kerala fests Ajayan First Published: Fri, Feb 22 2008. 11 59 PM IST ALSO READ • Daniells’ India | Always twilight Updated: Fri, Feb 22 2008. 11 59 PM IST Kochi Safety from Elephants Kottarathil Shankunni, author of Itheehya Mala had a pattern by which he will end a series of his stories with a story of one legendary elephant, before staring yet another series, ending with another elephant. So as a tribute to a great author who filled me with awe and helped me to expand my imagination, I thought I will end my first series of safety with an elephant story. Kothukine kollan koodam veno?, my friend Advocate Anil Kumar often asks me as we discuss something or the other. As I was debating whether to write about safety from elephants, this was the question which crossed my mind. Should I include safety from elephants in my series and in a sense trivialize the series itself? Then what about stray dogs? Oh, by the way, what about snakes? Before long I could be asked to write about mosquito bites. Athu veno? Yet, safety from elephants is not a trivial issue in Kerala. Every other month you hear of a tamed elephant that has run amok, creating havoc in temples or other public places, often leading to deaths. The issue was serious enough for Kalakaumudi magazine to run a cover story on this topic. In the specific case of elephants, for every individual that dies, there are at least one thousand who are traumatized by the experience, sometimes for a lifetime. My father went to Sabarimala in 1958 and was caught in a stampede, with my two sisters, in an incident where an elephant went amok. While he was not hurt, not even sure he even saw the elephant (kadanangunnathum kandu, kariyila ilakunnathum kandu, to paraphrase Harishree Ashokan), he never went back to Sabarimala, nor did he allow any of us to go for the next 25 years. So the impact is not trivial. Elephants are revered in Kerala and have been so for a few generations at least. Though elephants are seen in many parts of the world, they are not attempted to be tamed everywhere. Even when they are tamed, as in Thailand or Sri Lanka, they are not as much part of the cultural life as they are in Kerala. I am not sure if there are as many well known legendary elephants in any other part of the world, nor to my knowledge has a film been made about an elephant to immortalize the memory as we did for Guruvayoor Keshavan. I am a malayalee who grew up listening to stories from my father. Before I could read, I had already heard almost all of the stories in Itheehya mala and even more. This, as you know, included the story of all those famous elephants (Vaikkathu Thiru Neelakandan, Konniyil Kochayyappan etc). As a true blooded Malayalee, I think elephants are beautiful animals and I enjoy watching them and feeding them. My real reason for going to Guruvayoor always has been to watch the 50 + elephants in punnathur kotta. Last time I went, there was this cute (and naughty I was told) baby elephant donated by Suresh Gopi there. So the point I am trying to make is that while I am as much as a malayalee as most of you are and I enjoy watching elephants as much as you do, when I put on a safety experts hat, I start to see things very differently. I see a completely unnecessary risk being created by the society and those of which are sustained on the basis of a few myths and misconceptions. Of the various preventable deaths that happen in our society, this is one that could be prevented 100% in our generation if only we take the right decisions now. Let me explain the issue from two angles: utility and cruelty. In my childhood, most elephants had dual use. All of them were trained to move timber around (thadi pidutham). I think this was the time when we had an extensive forest timber business (Koop). We did not have proper access roads or mechanization (such as fork lifts or JCBs). Therefore, having elephants were a must to sustain that industry. This is no longer the case. Firstly, we do not have an extensive forest timber concession business and, secondly, we now have equivalent mechanical equipment that can handle the tasks done by elephants. So, if we were to stop all our elephants from working on timber business tomorrow onwards, I dont think the industry will come to a standstill. It may need an adjustment time but it is definitely does not mean the end. The alternative use of the elephant was for temple festivals (and occasionally for other events). This, unfortunately, is on the rise. The temple where I used to go had one elephant coming in for one day in my childhood. Now there are up to seven elephants coming for up to 5 days. With the number of temple renovations on the increase and temples getting increasingly financially stable, you can see the roaring business in parading elephants for temple festivals. As far as I know, there are three groups of people in Kerala who are deeply interested in the welfare of the elephants. Aana Premis (elephant lovers), Aaan Udamas (elephant owners) and then the Government. Within the Government, there is the Devaswam Department who probably want the elephant parade to continue, the Forest department which has the mandate to ensure the welfare of the elephants and the police department which, I would imagine, is dreading an elephant going mad any any given point of time. First, let me talk about the Aaana Premis. Their passion for this animal has to be seen to be believed. They are totally romantic about the animal. They know which are the elephants on the top of the scale (based on documented elephant beauty parameters) and manage to track their favorite elephants at any point of time. Much before mobile phones became popular, in the early nineties, this group of hard core aana premies, one of them known to me, used to exchange postcards with each other updating the whereabouts of these elephants. These days, I am sure they continue the practice through the use of SMS. I often wonder if there will one day be an elephant reality show in Kerala to find out which is the most majestic animal of them all. I am sure there will be no shortage of audience or SMS votes. These aana premies not only enjoy watching them, but also keep a close eye on their welfare. They work collectively to introduce welfare schemes (how long an elephant should be allowed to work, walk, what time of the day they should be allowed to work, etc.). They also bring to public and authorities attention, any instance of abuse of the elephant and violation of these provisions. The selfless efforts by a number of these aana premies have often made me wonder. On the other hand, and often antagonistic to the aana premies, are the aana udama group. They have a more realistic approach to the animal because, at the end of the day, they have to implement all of the welfare measures that are proposed and also bear the brunt of the consequence in case the animal go out of control. I had a very long chat with Advocate Arun Kumar, who was the president of the Kerala Aana Udama Sangham and has had elephants in his family as long as he can recall. I got a lot of interesting information from him regarding catching elephants, training them, and trading them. What really amazed me was that the current market price of a good elephant is about 1.3 crore. When I was young, the proverb in Malayalam was aana jeevichalum chattalum pantheerayiram and that referred to the market price of an elephant and the fact that you could sell its tusk and get the same price. This proverb is, however, no longer valid, for two reasons. Firstly, a live elephant is worth above one crore. A dead elephant is worth nothing (and lot of trouble) as tusks cannot be sold anymore. In conventional economics, the cash flow from the investment of elephants is not too robust. And then there is the prevailing danger of the investment and the cash flow vanishing in just one minute when the local authorities order a rampaging elephant to be shot (though mercifully this is not happening any more)! Yet the fact that there is still no shortage of people who are willing to own elephants is not only a reflection of its economic return or speculative value but also the fact that most elephant owners are aana premies themselves. If newspaper reports are to be believed, film star Jayaram, is both an aana premi and an aana udama. Incidentally, let me say as a way of name dropping that I am from the same hometown as Jayaram (Perumbavoor). Most people who enjoy watching elephants, and at least some people who own the elephants, actually have no idea how a wild elephant, which has the power to uproot a tree or overturn a truck is converted into a meek animal that obeys the command of a tiny individual armed with no more than a harmless stick. I think Jayaram probably would have a more balanced view on this because his ancestral town, in Kodanadu, is one of the few places in Kerala where wild elephants were tamed. I first went to visit Kodanadu in 1970, when catching and taming wild elephants were still practiced those days. Pits were set up along known routes of elephants and one or few elephants fell into the trap. The herd of elephants would then try their best to get their comrade out. However, upon receiving the news of elephant having fell into a pit, a team of expert mahouts, forest officials and experienced tamed elephants (thappana) went to the site to bring the elephant to Kodanad. The news of elephant having fell into pit was newspaper item those days and we used to go immediately after a new elephant was brought. This new elephant will be brown and dusty, very agitated hitting on the wooden walls of the Kraal and was kept in solitary confinement. I am sure Jayaram would have seen this sight multiple times. I just noticed that Mathrubhumi carried a series of pictures of aana pidutham last week. Elephants are wild animals, very much like a lion or a tiger. They are not like cows or horses, which are domestic animals. So the elephants that we see in a domesticated are actually not domestic animals but are tamed animals. And there is a difference between the two. This animal is tamed by a combination of physical brutality and psychological maneuvering whereby it is made to realize that its only option to a safe life is obeying the commands of human beings. This, trust me, is not done by reciting gajendra moksham story into their ears or showing them crocodile hunter type of videos. This is done by being brutal in the early stages of the taming, whereby the animal is made to realize that: (a) human beings have in their command means for overwhelming and unlimited violence to control the elephant and (b) the human beings are prepared to use it when the animal does not obey commands. The second stage is one of psychological maneuvering whereby the animal is made to realize that its only hope to welfare (e.g., food, avoidance of torture, etc.) is to obey the commands of the human being. By combination of overwhelming violence and being the exclusive conduit of welfare, the trainer achieves mental superiority over this once powerful animal. I know it is not easy for us who have grown up hearing amazing stories of intelligence that the elephants exhibit and the fantastic myths about Guruvayoor Keshavan and other majestic elephants, to accept that each of our mythological and heroic elephants (and the majestic ones now) were tamed using the same process. Kottarathil Sankunni had a great way of mixing facts with fiction (a very enjoyable way I must admit), so I cannot vouch for the authenticity of every incident of intelligent behavior by those legendary elephants, but I can say for certain that none of those legendary elephants were tamed in any less violent or humane way. You could ask me how can these stories of love and loyalty of elephant be true if the root of it all is fear ?. Of course, it is well established that fear and love are not incompatible relationships. Even in human relationships you can see such situation where cruel husbands, mothers of fathers are both feared but also loved by their near ones. Regardless of whether elephants love human beings, I know for sure that there is a great amount of love for elephants in our society. However, the question a true lover of elephants should ask is that in balance, what is the love of the entire malayalees doing to the elephants? If our love for tamed elephants is causing them great pain—to those new elephants as they are caught, tamed, and trained, so that they could be presented as lovable animals to us—is that love true ?. Think of yourself being captured by an alien of superior intelligence who communicates in a language that you dont understand and travel in vehicles you are not familiar with and live in places that you have not heard of. Imagine what will happen if you are caught by them and tamed, by use of electric shocks or other pain inflicting methods to behave in a manner which they find cute or adorable, would you love the alien as an individual ?. Would we, as a race find the behavior of that other race acceptable?. Thinking about this article, I had a dream. In the dream, I am watching an elephant court in deep Kerala forest. All elephants, wild and tamed, present and previous, had assembled for an aana vicharana. In the dock are Veerappan, Kottarathil Shankunni, Jayaram, some Gods and Goddesses, Suresh Gopi, Jayalaltha, and Ittan Mathukkutty, Madampu Kunjukkuttan, and a guy who is the president of the Aana Premi Sangham, whom I could not recognize. Elephants were debating which of them have been most harmful to the elephant race. The jury was still out before I woke up so I didnt get to know the judgment. But in my mind, they are all still in the dock. As a safety expert, if I apply my mind, I can tell you a dozen or more ways of handling safety, related to elephants. But I am not going to do that. Instead, I would like to nominate anybody who goes anywhere near elephants, wild or tamed, for a Darwin Award. This is a competition run mainly, but not exclusively, through the Internet. This is basically given out for somebody who does something so stupid that they either die or are made impotent. You can see the Darwin award nominations at http:/ /darwinawards/. Their motto is honoring those who improve the species…by accidentally removing themselves from it!. While tragic at individual levels, the 1000 people who run around the elephant which is going amok are all fit for nominations for the award. To save them by giving them safety leads wouldnt be in line with my philosophy. To me, the whole idea of brutalizing a wild animal, taming it, and then parading it so that you can adore it is totally not fit with the development of human civilization as we stand in 2010. So to me, it is time the aana premies really started a movement to see the best way to ensure that no new elephant is caught, trained, or tamed. I think the new Government Laws support this. It is also time that we, as a society, started to think how we can seek forgiveness from these poor animals that we have brutalized and paraded only for our happiness. To me, giving them all a safe retirement life in a secured open area is the least we can do to atone our sins. I know there are scientific or practical constraints to this but if we, as a society, apply our mind to this, none of the challenges are insurmountable. Experts can then decide how best to look after them and society (including Government) can decide how to compensate the elephant owners and involve the elephant lovers in their well being. If we start now, we can make the all elephant myths a true legend before 2100 AD. A small sacrifice for kind man, a big gain for elephant kind. From a safety experts point of view, then there will be no death on our streets from tamed elephants. Muralee Thummarukudy is Emergency Management Expert with over 15 years of experience in Industry and United Nations. Muralee frequently blogs about safety issues at muraleethummarukudy The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations .
Posted on: Thu, 01 Jan 2015 12:16:59 +0000
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