March 24, 2016

Wake up!

It's Pooram Time!
Wake up, Dear Superficial Elephant Lovers!

It's Pooram Time!
It's time to write, "Elephants belong to Forests"

It's Pooram Time!
It's time say Hindu Temples torture elephants for fun and festival grounds are full of drunkards.

It's Pooram Time!
It's Time to create new pages on social media and shed Crocodile Tears.


It's Pooram Time!
And.. let me tell you dear pseudo activists, 
We have read enough of your nonsense. Your
Crocodile tears cannot dampen our festival spirits..

It's Time for me to write a reply to you!!
 ----------------------------------------
            The rains have stopped.. The early morning chillness of winter and the ever flowing cool winds thru the Walayar Gap have also stopped.. The Summer is here. Harvest season is over and the Palakkadan paddy fields have transformed themselves as the venue to the next major activity - The Festivals. The grounds surrounding the temples in other districts are also  ready to welcome the festivals. Yes, the peak festival season of Kerala has started. Elephants are busy attending and traveling from one festival ground to another. The most of colorful festival among them, The Thrissur Pooram is just less than a month away. 

And it is that time of the year again.. when the ostensible Elephant lovers and activists emerge from their cocoon and proliferate on National, International and Social media. It is time for them to shed crocodile tears about the pain the elephants are going through and once the Pooram is over, they become dormant till next year's Pooram. This has been going on for last few years (Read my earlier post about these reports here). Recently, some of them have even managed to stay awake even after the festival season and they try ensure that the flow of tears doesn't stop. They are ready to speak, write or do anything, as long as it keeps them in limelight, generates revenue, increases traffic to their website etc..


After reading the above 2 paragraphs, you might have already concluded that I'm one among those few ruthless "Elephant fans" who hire elephants for a day or two paying huge sum, put a banner of a club, locality or place(Desam) on top of elephant ask mahout to make the elephant stand straight holding its head up for long intervals - All this, only to make sure that their Club or Desam win an unwanted and unhealthy competition.. No, I do not belong to the group of those morons either.
I am just a festival goer,
who attends few traditional temple festivals every year.

I am just a festival goer,
who wishes to see my temple festivals in its full glory and glitter.

I am just a festival goer,
who loves elephants and want them to be taken care properly

I am just a festival goer,
who doesn't want any Tom-Dick-and-Harry to dictate what my temples should do

I am just a festival goer,
who wishes to see people understand what is right and what is wrong.

I am just a festival goer,
who is seeking the truth behind these crocodile tears.
If you look closely, the overall festival Elephant rental business in the state is messy. Some amount of cleaning is required before it goes beyond a point where nothing can be done to clean it. At one side, we have temple administrators, elephant owners and brokers and at the other side, there is a set of people who try to use festivals as an opportunity to portray temples as the most cruel place on earth to elephants - The Self proclaimed saviours of elephants, The Elephant Activists. 




In this post, I will give the former a pass and try to express my views and facts about the latter. I am planning to publish another post about the issues faced by elephants soon. No one can deny the fact that the domestic population of elephants in Kerala are facing some problems due to various factors but I strongly feel that these activists are helping only to divert the attention from the core issue and they are not helping anyone than themselves.


Who are these activists? Well, anyone can become an activist. If love towards elephants is making some people raise their voice, it could be some hidden agenda or urge to become popular that makes other few people wail. The good and knowledgeable experts are outnumbered by these new generation social media elephant activists and most of them seem to have little idea about the ground reality. It appears that they are also not so keen on getting to know the ground reality since their main intention is to evoke sympathy by means of posting melodramatic posts on social media or by writing columns on international media with tons of incorrect facts. Their job becomes easy since many readers of pages run by activists also doesn't seem to have much idea about the ground reality. Many readers doesn't even seem to realize that a photo or video can be projected in any manner by adding misleading captions with it.  


So you must be wondering that why am I writing this post about the so called Elephant activists while I agree to the fact that elephants are facing some issues? The sole reason is that I cannot agree with most of the views expressed by them or their major arguments. I strongly feel that they are behind money and fame and their concern is not welfare of elephants.

 Let me try to list few of the topics / their arguments here and followed by my views on those topics.


 1. Elephants should be banned


The activists are urging for a total ban on usage of elephants at temples. Well, that is a very good suggestion to save the elephants from heavy workload during the festival season. But I have a question here.. Once the ban is implemented, What are we going to do with the 500+ domesticated population of elephants in Kerala? This is one question i have asked to the people who are in favor of the ban(whom I have met) and whenever the topic of Ban has come up during a discussion. One dumb suggestion that some of these activists often speak about is to release these elephants back to forest; which is not a solution. Once domesticated, these elephants cannot be released back to forest. Many of these elephants have spent decades in temples and captivity and they will find it difficult to adapt to the surroundings which once used to be their home. I have not found a single activist who has answered this question or has a concrete plan for rehabilitation of Kerala's domesticated / temple elephants.


Doesn't this sound like fighting a war for someone else without knowing what they are fighting for?


This war cry for total ban reminds me of something else. During Onam festival, there used to be bull racing (kannu poottu / maramadi) at paddy fields near my home until 2-3 years ago. Those bulls are usually looked after very well and they are used for racing in paddy fields. You can call it farmer's horse racing and a celebration after the harvest. One fine morning some organization filed a complaint and the court banned it citing the practice as very cruel. You can guess what followed. Many of those racing champions were sent to wedding halls. Yes, in the form of Biriyani. This is a perfect example of how a ban should not be enforced / implemented. 

Point to ponder: If a farmer's sport that involves bull is cruel, why people/activists doesn't find Rich man's Horse racing cruel? (It is a different topic altogether, will discuss sometime later)


Only relief in case of the elephants is that they will not become Biriyani. But.. if a ban is enforced without proper rehabilitation plans, they will head to a slow death due to starving and lack of care. That will be cruel than the Chains and sticks - their current problem.


2. Thrissur Pooram and Guruvayoor Temple - The Two Easy targets for activists


Most of the fake allegations are against 2 easy targets - Thrissur Pooram and Guruvayoor Temple's Elephants. Why? May be, the activists know that Publicity can be easily achieved when you make (baseless) allegations against something which is very popular and famous. I had come across one such article that appeared in Daily Mail. Fortunately, Mr. Prem Panikkar wrote a fitting reply to that baseless article and thus proving that all those allegations in that badly written article were totally wrong. You can read that reply here - Peeli.org 
A scene from Thrissur Pooram 2012

Also, these activists come to Kerala and click photos with elephants owned by Guruvayoor, Thiruvambady and Paramekkavu temples, shoot videos when the elephants are having some temporary health issues, caption it with superlative adjectives like "gut-wrenching, shell shocked, stupefied etc." (and most importantly no updates will be provided when the elephant recovers),  then go back and blame that the temples are not looking after the elephants. The activists would then write on media as if they are taking care of the elephants and some of them even collect money from public for that also. Contrary to these claims by activists, these temples own some of the most famous elephants in Kerala and they are looked after extremely well also.

My set of questions to the activists:

  •     Will these activists have courage speak or write against some other festival where some unhealthy practices are still ON?

  •     Will they write against a private elephant owner similar to the way they write about any of these temples?

  •   Will they have the courage to visit any of these non-temple festivals similar to the way they go to Thrissur Pooram and shoot footages and publish it later by adding all sentimental masala?

  •  Though elephants are used by all religions in Kerala for their festivals, will any activist ever speak about any religious institution other than a temple?

The answer is a big NO for all these questions and the activists know the reason very well.

It saddest part is, when thousands of people who come to attend the Pooram are standing all over Thekkinkad maithanam watching the Kudamattam ceremony of the Thrissur Pooram, our Government and Tourism department issue passes to these activists (most of whom attend the event as Tourists) to watch the festival from a special gallery and get a good view - Only to go back and write that Thrissur Pooram is the most cruelest festival on Earth. Isn't it time that the Government stop these Wolves in sheep's clothing from occupying the gallery and do harm to the festival itself?


3. They are wild animals, they should be at Forest



Agreed. They are wild animals. Aren't humans all over the world domesticating wild animals? Have you revolted against at least some of them? Now don't give me a ****** reply that, this is the starting point.


Elephants are one of the most intelligent animals on land. They have a counterpart in water too - The Dolphins. Did any of these activists who always dream and scream about 'ആന വിമുക്തമായ കിനാശ്ശേരി' (Kerala without temple Elephants) object any of those Parks in different parts of the world where Dolphins and Seals and made to perform? Why is it not being considered as cruelty? Is it because its just a tourist attraction and not a temple related activity?


Elephants are widely used in East Asian countries to promote tourism. They make elephants perform various stunts, make it draw paintings, do body massage for tourists and what not? I wonder why this non stop tear shedding activists are still crying about elephants in Kerala only..


And few words to the to foreign media publishing stories about Cruelty against Temple elephants: Currently the number of domestic elephants in Kerala is much lesser than what invaders from your country have used here for fighting wars against different Princely States of India or that they have killed for ivory and for pleasure of hunting. Our government is currently protecting whatever is left is our forests and temples / owners are trying their best to protect the domesticated ones (though there is some scope for improvement). So please try to understand the ground reality before you publish a crap story next time.


Also, we shouldn't forget that no one even cared about the hunting of lions in Africa and the hobby sport called Trophy Hunting (which is legal even now at most parts of the world as per Wikipedia), until the death of the famous lion 'Cecil' recently. There are many countries in world even now where hunting of wild animals is legal. Many in Arab countries have Tigers and Lions as pets. I don't think anyone really cares about all that. May be, they feel killing or hunting an animal is OK but it is an unpardonable crime when an elephant is chained in a temple.


4. "Oh, why there is a chain around him"



The fact is that many mahouts let elephants without chains / use very less chains when the elephant is not participating in a procession. If my understanding is correct, there are strict norms by forest department on how to use the elephants during processions. So chains are must when they are being paraded. Since the idea of blanket ban is not practical, the chains are going to stay.


Another (stupid) argument I have come across many times, is chaining of elephants during its 'musth' period. Musth is usually  found on bull elephants and the elephant will be very aggressive during that period which lasts upto 5-6 months. I have read about some forest camps where the elephants in Musth are allowed to roam free. But that is definitely not an option to consider in case of domesticated elephants. Therefore, the elephants are chained during the musth period. The mahouts routinely attend them even during this period and loosen the chains and  washing away the mud from the chains and legs.  In the case of very aggressive elephants they use a long pole to loosen / move the chains on elephants' legs. It is very sad to see that the activists manage to capture photos and videos of this and portray the mahouts as torturing the elephant - whereas the reality is that the mahouts are trying to help the elephant, at times even by putting his life into risk.


Ideally, the activists should be happy as these chains help them. They showcase the chains as the biggest burden for the jumbos and thus earn sympathy and financial support. These chains provide the activists their bread and butter.. :)


5. Elephants get separated from their family



Oh yeah yeah.. how to miss this point.  This is the best topic for activists where they can add sufficient amounts of melodrama and cook a perfect meal for their hungry fans who are eagerly waiting for stories filled with sorrow about temple elephants every morning (reminds me of housewives addicted to soap operas) and do India and Hindu bashing in the comments section. It is true that elephants live as a group in forests and they are separated from the herd when they get caught or trapped. But we should not forget the fact that the bull elephants are not retained by the herd all the time. Anyway, I am not going into details of elephants' behaviour in the wild since this post is not exactly about that.

Elephant capture is not legal anymore in India. No elephants are caught for domesticating from the 1980s. Ideally, we should not have anymore cases of wild elephants getting separated from their herd due to capture. For the ones which were already separated decades ago, we don't have an option to reunite them too.

Also, most of the domesticated Nadan (term used to mention elephant of South Indian origin) Elephants in Kerala were auctioned by the government itself. The remaining elephants were bought (during a time period when their trade was legal) and brought from various cattle fairs at North India. The stories of elephants missing its herd, Mom, Dad, Uncle or Aunt might help the activists to gather more sympathizers but the fact is, No temple administration or owner has ever gone to forest and caught an elephant themselves. There is no use of blaming the temple for that. This is not like doing fishing in the pond near someone's home. Nobody goes into a forest with a rope in the morning and comes back with a elephant tied to the other end of the rope in the evening. It is time for the activists to put across some better arguments than these lame ones.


6. Mahouts are drunk and cold blooded torturers.



It is very easy to stereotype them in that manner. Doing so might help the activists to get few brownie points also. There could be few mahouts who drink but definitely not all of them. As I said earlier, the truth is that the majority of the mahouts are trying to help the elephant, at times even by putting his life into risk.

There were and there are lot of good mahouts. Without their care and love, these giants would not have survived so many years in captivity.




7. Elephants are scared by Fireworks and Chenda



A wild elephant that strays into human inhabited areas might get frightened when it hears sound of a fire cracker or drums which are usually used to shoo away the wild elephants. But these domesticated ones have been hearing these sounds for months or years. I don't think any of these current domesticated elephants are scared of Chenda Melam. (On a lighter note, some of these jumbos could be big fans of the Chenda Maestros). During their initial days, some of these domesticated elephants might have got scared during the fireworks but this is where the mahout's role comes into play. The mahouts usually stand close to the animal during fireworks, touching its tusks or body and the elephants feel safe when mahouts are around and will not panic. Later on, they get used to that noise too.



The activists also claim that the Vadakkumnathan Temple gets totally damaged in the Thrissur Pooram fireworks every year and how can the elephant withstand such strong sound. Ironically, the same temple has won the top ‘Award of Excellence’ from UNESCO in 2015 for the remarkable conservation efforts. We can be sure that if a temple roof collapses and gets rebuilt every year, it will not even get qualified for the preliminary round of such a famous award. It is not the roof but some clay tiles on the roof that usually get dislocated due to the vibration.


There are many more lame arguments. Not all of them are worth mentioning.


Sharing a set of tweets from 2015 by Mr. Nikhil Narayanan about an organization and the foriegn funds they received. This is the same organization which filed a case in Supreme court against parading of elephants in Kerala. For those who wants to verify the figures mentioned in the tweets, they can verify the data in Government of India's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) website using the following links https://fcraonline.nic.in/ and https://fcraonline.nic.in/fc3_amount.aspx

 








 


The summary of these set of tweets is - An organization which (is 'for the conservation and welfare of wildlife in urban and rural areas' - as per their website) received Lakhs of money from a religious body in a foreign country under ambiguous heads and later on the same organization approached the Supreme Court of India to get elephants out of festivals - which will predominantly affect another religion. 

Since I do not have any other details than what we can see in the FCRA website, I'd prefer to leave it to the readers to reach a conclusion using their discriminatory skills on this.

Before I sign off, few words to the mighty and intelligent Elephant activists:  

Unlike you, I have written this post without any amount of exaggeration. This is just an attempt to speak about what I know, what I have read from your posts, what I have seen you do and speak. If you felt that this post is a baseless one after reading it, it is not True. I'd request you to read this post once again and introspect.. and if you still feel that this post is baseless, you are just getting a taste of your own medicine. Get well soon!
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1 comment:

The Traveller said...

It just ate away quite some time.. but worth it ..

Re-reading would have eliminated some glitches .. Good one :)

May 19, 2016 at 5:41 PM

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