Kerala - Kollam   

How to advance musth in tuskers

Ignatius Pereira

IN MUSTH: A tethered tusker during the final stages of musth trying to attack its mahout.

KOLLAM: The owner of a herd of 15 captive elephants at Puthenkulam near here claims to have successfully experimented with a system for advancing musth among tuskers so as to avoid musth-related emergencies during the festival season.

Mr. Shaji claims that his captive tuskers, following planned nutrition and diet regulation, endure the annual three-month musth during off season and remain free from it during the festival season. Musth has resulted in tuskers turning violent and often killing the mahouts, besides creating a reign of terror and damaging property. According to information provided by the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), in Kollam district, 12 mahouts were killed by tuskers in musth in 2003, six mahouts in 2004 and four mahouts in 2005.

Musth is a phenomenon seen in physically fit captive male elephants above the age of 20. It is said to be caused due to the over-activity of the male sex hormone androgen owing to excessive stress. High stress during the festival season spurts musth. Tuskers turn highly violent then. The symptoms include a secretion from the musth gland. There are two methods of controlling musth. One is through the scientific method of injecting anti-androgenic drugs and another through biological control by planned nutrition and diet regulation.

The off season is spread over the period from May to December and festival season from January to April. Since elephants are a source of income, most owners make them work at timber depots during off season. This results in the tuskers experiencing musth during summer, which is the festival season.

Mr. Shaji says that during off season he does not send his elephants to work at timber depots. Instead, he uses them for tourist attraction. Each day scores of foreign tourists arrive at his elephant yard to give bath and feed the elephants. Mr. Shaji earns an income and his elephants get ample rest.

During the period they are given a planned high nutrition and regulated diet. The diet comprises ayurvedic medicines in addition to ashtachoorna powder, chavanaprasham, nava dhanya powder, dates, rice flakes, jaggery and wheat for three months. After that, the tuskers are given total rest for one month and during this period they come into musth. They are then tethered to a tree and cooled down through regular showers and food comprising watermelon and cucumber.

Mr. Shaji says that by mid-January all the tuskers would have endured the annual musth and enter a normal phase for the festival season. As per SPCA statistics, there are 942 captive elephants in the State and they take part in more than 2,500 festivals across the State.

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