CONSERVATION
The elephant in India
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`Stephen Alter combines the writing skill he has honed as a novelist with his penchant for the outdoors and research.'
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The King has chariots with banners fluttering at their heights
With horses that gallop like the rush of the wind and
That king has elephants, which fight as if they were ramming mountains
While his army glowing with weapons could as well be the ocean.
Poet Mathurai Kumaranar in Purananooru (Tr. George Hart)
ELEPHANTS, of course, have been around much earlier than the Sangam period (Third to Fifth Centuries AD). Their fossil remains continue to be discovered in different parts of India. In the 1960s, a college student retrieved an elephant fossil, a probable Pliocene-Pleistocene age deposit, at Ayaniduppu near Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. Though the animal was one of the earliest to be protected by law, in 1879 itself, its number has been declining at an alarming rate. Recognising this, the Government of India set up the Project Elephant in 1992. The book under review is an overview of the Indian elephant, its status and the problems faced in its conservation.
Elephant in all its dimensions
Stephen Alter has visited a number of sanctuaries harbouring these behemoths, met with the individuals concerned with the future of these creatures, pored through much of the material published so far on this subject and has written this book. He combines the writing skill he has honed as a novelist with his penchant for the outdoors and research. He introduces the readers to the earth's largest land mammal, in all its dimensions in history, in literature, in art, in cinema and its ecology. He does this in his endearing and reader-friendly style.
There are only 50, 000 Asian elephants left in the wild and out of this, India has the largest population — 28,000 in the forests and 3500 in captivity. Not only is this number frighteningly small but also conservation is getting tougher day-by-day. Alter sums up the studies so far done on these animals and deals with the various issues connected with the protection of elephants. He describes the struggle put up by the Government and conservationists to save the elephant, the emblem of India's tropical forests. The increasing pressure on its habitat from India's fast growing human population and the consequent confrontations with humans make elephant conservation a daunting task. Railway lines cutting through sanctuaries take their toll. There are poachers lurking in the forests, waiting for tuskers. To many farmers the elephant is just a nuisance that can trample one season's sugarcane or banana.
In his search for the history of elephant, Alter covers Ajanta, Ellora and Mamallapuram. He examines ancient texts on elephants and the Mughal miniatures. The life of mahouts and the plight of temple elephants also receive attention from the author. However, he omits dealing with circus elephants, basically because he finds the subject repulsive.
When activists alienate people
Alter deals with an important issue when he points out that groups like the animal rights activists, by their activism, complicate the issue by alienating a lot of people from the cause of conservation. To illustrate this point, he tells the story of a rogue elephant captured alive and rehabilitated in Theppakadu elephant camp in Tamil Nadu. Animal rights activists accused the Forest department of negligence and tried to internationalise the issue by roping in a U.S. senator in the fray. Murthy, the former rogue elephant named after the legendary veterinarian Dr. Krishnamurthy, is now happily settled in the camp. In earlier times, he would have just been shot as a rogue. The episode exposed the emptiness of the claims of these activists. This is just one of the many problems conservationists face in India.
The book includes an exhaustive bibliography on the subject, which researchers will find helpful. However, it is sad that a work of this nature does not carry an index.
Elephas Maximus: A Portrait of the Indian Elephant, Stephen Alter, Penguin India, 2004, with black and white photographs, p.328, Rs.350.
S. THEODORE BASKARAN
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