Disclaimer: I know very well that I cannot match my Malayalam language skills while writing in English, Still just attempting to translate my post for the benefit of a larger audience and per request of few friends.
We should not rejoice when others fall.. because we might also go thru same situation tomorrow. Still, let me scribble down few lines, keeping the same in mind.
Though I cannot term that feeling as Happiness, I must say that I felt reaffirmed, reassured that there is a Supreme power called GOD when I read the news that HE issued a small warning thru a 4 year old little elephant named Rana of the Kottur elephant rehabilitation center to a person..
- who has been labeling our sacred temples like Thruvambady, Guruvayoor and many others as "infamous" and calling for boycott of all of them which use elephants.
- who has been posing as an expert who knows everything than many of the knowledgeable yet humble experts in the field of elephant care and welfare in Kerala,
- who has been tarnishing the temple festivals as gatherings of drunkards to torture elephants,
- who doesn't miss a chance to Hug, Kiss and Pose for a photograph with an elephant and later post it on Social media as if it is her own elephant,
- who sheds crocodile tears later citing that she was not allowed to meet 'her' elephant,
- who later cooked up a melodramatic crap and call it a Documentary, seek alms (amounting to thousands of US Dollars) in the name of it on social media - to stop all temple festivals.
To err is human.. mistakes do happen. Irony is, when it happens to someone who claims to be on a mission to enlighten the elephant owners and temple authorities of Kerala about rules of elephant welfare and to take elephant away from temples. When Sangita Iyer reached the Kottur camp as a special guest of the officials (See, where you can reach by using a PR team on social media), She conveniently agreed to break the rules of the elephant camp by going beyond the barricades placed for visitors (See the newpaper report below - Malayala Manorama dated 10 Jan 2017). Reports from various other news papers also say, she did not pay heed to pleas and warnings of experienced mahouts of the elephant camp - not to venture close to the animals. She went ahead with her usual routine of touching and hugging elephants (may be for a Photo Op) until the four year old Rana decided to 'deal' with her.. resulting in 3 fractures on her leg and a surgery - as per the Malayala Manorama report.
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| A report from Malayalam Daily 'Malayala Manorama' about the incident |
Initially reported as an attack by the elephant, many of the 'not so famous' news papers / electronic media later on went ahead and corrected their pages to project this as an injury to her leg due to a mishap that occurred when Sangita tried to move away as the baby elephant swayed its trunk. Some Facebook pages run either by the organizations who are into 'cyber begging' for various 'genuine' causes or by the so called elephant experts / activists, also tried to project this as a minor incident. They knew very well that it will a big setback for them if the world comes to know that, the main face of their "anti-temple & anti-temple festival" movement got kicked by a young elephant after she approached him by breaking rules of the elephant camp and going beyond the barricades for visitors. Anyway, Malayala Manorama didn't twist the facts in this story. Kudos to them for that.
Elephants in Central Kerala are usually fed with palm leaves (the tree known as Fishtail palm.. or Caryota urens) and in many places in south Kerala Coconut tree leaves are used. This practice has been going on for decades / centuries now. The temples, elephants owners and festival committees go beyond their limits to ensure supply of palm leaves to the Jumbos. I am sure that no elephant has ever starved in the state due to non availability of palm leaves. This being the case, the pseudo activists who mushroomed recently on social media are suddenly claiming that all these palm leaves, sugar cane, ayur vedic medicines based on Hasthyayurveda etc are unscientific.
Then do you know what is the best scientific diet for elephants? Pineapple. Yeah, you heard it right. Probably that is why this "elephant welfare expert" went to the 4 year old Rana and tried to feed him a Pineapple. As if the western ghats are full of these thorny fruit, as if all our Sahyaputhras are feasting on pineapple daily.
Well, nothing wrong in feeding a pineapple, elephants eat that too.. I just wanted to emphasize the fact that when Keralites feed elephants with care, especially the one's like Guruvayoor Padmanabhan and such elephants who are usually fed also using stems of banana plant/tree for ease of digestion - that is branded as torture; Torture by feeding unscientific food. Whereas, when some 'imported expert' feeds a Pineapple, that is outpouring love and affection for the tortured animal. Affection, my foot!
Anyway.. the politicians, officials, advocates and judges who were instrumental in supporting Sangita's documentary and facilitating screening at Kerala Secretariat and High court can now run around and find a place to bury their heads somewhere. The self proclaimed activist who is on a mission to enforce laws, has now proved that she herself is a law breaker. I personally see the above screenings as efforts to influence the Government and judiciary. If the authorities had their priorities right, they should have supported and recognized the contributions of the genuine and knowledgeable Elephant trainers, mahouts and physicians of Kerala than supporting some social media campaign leader. It just reminds me of a Malayalam saying "Muttathe Mullakku Manam illa" - which roughly translates into - the Jasmine flowers from a plant in front of your home is always considered as the ones lacking aroma or in simple words, we seldom understand the value of the people / items which are with you or easily accessible. The authorities are least interested in acknowledging talent and knowledge we have here locally but are very supportive of the NGO driven propaganda. By the time the mistake is realized, the damage would have been already done.
It just reminds me about the story of Lord Krishna, who patiently waited and forgave the 100 sins of Sisupala - only to punish him once he crossed the limits. The flow of events is almost same in this case too. A devotee of Lord Guruvayoorappan like me can see it that way only. It is indeed astonishing for me that HE chose to give the 'warning' in the form an elephant of the Forest department's camp than by one from any of the temples. But when I thought about it a little more, I could imagine the chaos these activists (who are currently trying hard to hush up this story) would have created about that temple elephant.. and would have possibly gone to extent of blaming the temple authorities that they tortured the elephant which in turn attacked the visitor (with a hidden agenda!). They would have even tried to confiscate the animal to some 'sanctuary' run by them and use it as the mascot for their regular begging campaigns online. You don't need to be an expert to say all these.. just follow their actions for some time.. you will know it all. You will know how murky this activism 'business' is.
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| Kottur Rana. Image Courtesy & © Sabarinath V Nair |
Tailpiece: Since you claim everything under the sky as 'Gods in Shackles' impact and take credit for it.. you can consider this also as an impact due to Gods in Shackles.. but we will give the credit to almighty.
Thank you!
Friends, Adding my Facebook post in Malayalam below.
1 comment:
Your English is fantastic, and this article was hugely informative and wonderfully written. Please write more, and continue to bring these shenanigans to the attention of a wider audience.
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