My dear sad Rukku

A couple of days ago I went to the Big Temple (Arunachaleswarar Koil) for the first time in a while. As always when visiting, I wonder why its so long since the last visit. It’s that amazing! There are lots of Temples in South India, but there is everything extraordinary about this Temple and its miraculous backdrop of Arunachala – in fact it quite takes one breath away.

While at the Temple I walked through the gardens and reforested areas, and it was quite beautiful. Some ladies were picking flowers for Temple pujas (worship), a gent with his son where doing a very nice puja at a Ganesha shrine, kites (the bird variety) were gliding in the air currents swirling around in front of the gopurams and some noisy green parrots were fighting in one part of the garden; in fact other than the rowdy parrots, a serene, still and inspirational morning.

That is, until I arrived at the elephant house, which is the home of dear little Rukku. This is the place that she spends her evenings and nights when her other mind-numbing tedious work is over for the day. The pictures are truly heartbreaking and my happy mood evaporated in compassion for the dear elephant. You can see from the photographs that no effort has been made or money paid, to give her any quality of life, provide her with toys or implements to entertain or interest her, or even to give her a comfortable living situation – and considering all the work she does – that is something really rather shabby.

When Jayalalitha was the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister she implemented a programme to provide all (State) Temple Elephants with a month’s holiday in the forests. I heard that one Temple elephant in the first year of the programme, sulked and was moody when her keeper tried to get her into a conveyance to transport her to the Forests, but the next year, when it was time to go on her month’s vacation, apparently the same elephant literally ran into the transportation conveyance – she remembered the great holiday and was very eager to repeat the experience. About three years ago Jayalalitha was replaced as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and sadly since then all Temple Elephant vacations have been put on a permanent HALT.

So now that our dear little Rukku doesn’t have her annual holiday to look forward to, what kind of life can she expect? Well we have been told (by a reputable source) that the treatment of the elephant at this Temple is less barbaric than at other Temples – after all there is a reason why so many Keepers get killed by their own Elephants each year!) So maybe Rukku’s treatment is semi-barbaric, and maybe she gets a jab with an iron hook or other unpleasant implements just sometimes instead of often! Certainly the food is probably not very good, as most of the good stuff a person gives the elephant in the Temple, goes to the Keeper and his chums as does the money he collects through her trunk blessings.

On the floor of Rukku’s nasty elephant enclosure is a delightful choice of two different types of restrainers she will get tied to for the night where she can also enjoy standing in her own urine and feces.

So our dear sweet Rukku, who never gets to meet other elephants or go on proper walks, is manacled all night in a way she is barely able to move. So, after the undiluted misery of her night, there should be at least something to look forward to in her day? – but no, the day brings her 8 hours of mind numbing, painful, standing in one spot to beg on behalf of her Keeper and get coins from pilgrims for blessing them on the head with her trunk. How can it be a blessing for a pilgrim when the cost of it is the torture of the one giving the blessing?

Try standing for eight hours, not being able to move just hopping from foot to foot, and you will get an idea of the horror of dear Rukku’s day. I took the photograph of her to help me tell this story, but I felt so ashamed of her treatment that it was difficult to look at her and her sad, sad eyes.

A message to all visitors to India remember that by going to the Kerala processions (and similar functions), allowing elephants to bless you with their trunk, going on elephant rides or visiting Temple Elephants, Circuses, Processions or Elephant Sport Functions IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE EXPLOITATION AND (OFTEN) TORTURE OF THIS MAGNIFICENT, SOCIAL AND HIGHLY INTELLIGENT BEING. Please support the Elephant by not supporting its enslavement, abuse or torture.

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For more information about stressed, mistreated elephants and also information about the death of trainers by their elephants (animal rights groups say the increasing number of mahouts being killed by elephants in Kerala indicates serious flaws in captive elephant management and maintenance), check out this previous posting.

Elephant Cruelty

It was with great sadness that I learnt from Ruku’s (the elephant) handler that the rejuvenation camp for Temple elephants (including Tiruvannamalai District) did not take place in 2006 and is unlikely to occur this year, 2007.

Mudumulai elephant rejuvenation camp, 2005

Since the recent change of State Government, the notion of an Elephant one-month rejuvenation camp held in the Tamil Nadu forests, has been disbanded. It is heart-breaking news that such noble animals should be deprived of even one month a year of decent living amongst their own kinds. Instead Temple elephants have a life of drudgery, overwork and often cruelty from harsh, untrained handlers.

Hampi Elephant

When I recently spoke to Ruku's mahout, he insisted that Ruku's life is much better than most Temple elephants; and I have no reason not to believe him. There is no doubt that the mahout himself is kinder than most handlers. However a life of standing motionless on cold concrete for up to 10 hours a day for the benefit of visiting pilgrims with only a chained night on cold concrete to look forward to and always far distant from any of its own is hardly a 'kindness'.

For information about elephant news from all over the world, please visit: http://www.elephant-news.com/

For more information about the life of elephants in South India, I reproduce here a recent article from The Hindu newspaper:

Kerala elephants during procession

"Overuse, cruelty driving elephants to madness: KOCHI: Kerala, the home to most number of captive elephants, is fast becoming their torture ground as well.

Parading the animals in musth, stretching their working hours beyond reasonable limits, provocation by public and cruelty by mahouts are driving the elephants to madness.

This year, there were nearly 10 instances of animals running wild and killing two mahouts and causing widespread damage to property. In a recent instance in Thrissur, the elephant killed its first mahout when another mahout who was moving behind it stabbed the elephant with a knife.

Elephant parade

In another incident at Cherthala, a young elephant that was paraded in a temple, ran wild when someone burst a balloon near it.

While musth was the main reason for the elephants running wild, there were other factors like ill-treatment, provocation from outside elements and excitement that could upset the mental balance of the animal, said K.M. Abraham Tharakan, a veterinarian who had tranquillised nearly 135 elephants during the last 10 years.

For Dr. Tharakan, every working hour is a close encounter with death. There is every possibility that the animal hit by the dart charging towards the direction from where it is fired. There were instances in the past when the veterinarian had to run for cover after darting the animal. One less fortunate veterinarian was killed by the animal he had darted.

In the face of increasing instances of captive elephants running wild and causing death and destruction, the Forest Department issued directives to its officers to ensure that all the regulations regarding the parading of elephants were observed.

It would be an uphill task for the Forest Department to take care of the elephants in distress as it required heavy investment and huge manpower, said V.S. Varghese, Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife).

Temples and other religious and social organisations should desist from the practice of parading maximum number of elephants to add colour and life to festivals. People should also be aware of the stress such incidents were causing to the animals and discourage such practices, he said.

K.C. Panicker, secretary of the Elephant Welfare Association, said the incidents of elephants running wild could be controlled if the elephants in musth were not paraded.

As the musth season of the elephants coincided with the temple festival season, a section of the elephant owners make best use of this occasion to make money by letting the animals, including the ones in musth, to be paraded."

Please remember that all elephants in parades or Temples are living unnatural, unpleasant and often tortured lives. When you go to a Temple and give money to the mahout for the elephant to Bless you on the head with its trunk you are promoting the continual misuse of elephants in Temples. By visiting elephant processions at Kerala and elsewhere you are also promoting heart-breaking elephant cruelty. PLEASE SUPPORT OUR FRIEND THE ELEPHANT BY NOT SUPPORTING ITS EXPLOITATION.