The Hindu : Elephant denied food, water

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Elephant denied food, water

By Ignatius Pereira

KOLLAM, JAN. 17. A 45-year-old tusker, Vijayan, has been denied food and water for the past several days following a rift between the committee members of the Thamarakudi Sivavilasam Nair Service Society Karayogam, near Kottarakara. The elephant had been kept tethered to a tree for the past one month.

A team from the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which was alerted by the local people, led by its assistant secretary, G. Sathyaraj, reached the scene on Saturday and inspected the health of the tusker. The team issued a notice to the karayogam office-bearers to treat the elephant as per the law and warned that any violation would lead to stern action against the office-bearers.

The rift between the committee members surfaced following allegations that the income brought in by the tusker was being siphoned off by a section of the office-bearers. The karayogam treasurer, Ramachandran Nair, alleged that the president, Balakrishnan Pillai, had not been maintaining proper records of the income and hence his supporters had issued directions against renting out the tusker.

Mr. Balakrishna Pillai, however, denied the allegations. He said the tusker was being kept tethered for no reason, as a result of which the mahout had virtually deserted the elephant.

The veterinary doctors in the SPCA team, D. Shine Kumar, B. Ajit Babu and B. Aravind, said it was against the law to keep a domesticated tusker tethered even for 24 hours at a stretch. They said that on inspection, they had found that the elephant was weak.

It had not been given a bath for many days though elephants need daily baths as they have no sweat glands.

Even while the SPCA team was inspecting the tusker, the karayogam members were seen standing polarised and accusing each other of financial misappropriation.

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