Three captive elephants beaten, forced into trucks by TN forest dept officials

Sandhya, Jayanthi and Indhu - elephants belonging to the Kanchi Mutt - were beaten up using bullhooks and sticks as seen in several visuals.

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Shouts of ‘nada aane’ (walk elephant) followed by loud cracks of the whip are heard in a visual where two men are seen beating a captive elephant. A few officers from the local police force and the forest department are seen supervising the torture meted out to the animal.

In another visual shot before dawn, two mahouts yank a second elephant using ropes tied to her neck. The men try to move the elephant into a truck but their attempts remain unsuccessful. These visuals of brutality which have since gone viral were shot at the Marakkanam elephant care facility in Tamil Nadu on Friday.

It is from here that Indumathi, Jayanthi and Sandhya - 3 retired captive elephants living in the camp - were forcefully trans-located by the Forest Department officials on Friday.

This is a video shot at Marakkanam elephant care facility in Tamil Nadu. Three retired captive elephants living in the camp - Indumathi, Jayanthi and Sandhya - were forcefully trans-located by the Forest Department officials on Friday. @thenewsminute pic.twitter.com/D2SJUeSVFN — Shiba Kurian (@shiba_kurian) September 27, 2019

The elephants, that belong to the Kanchi Mutt, had been residing in the Marakkanam camp - run by the Tree Foundation (TF) and the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (WRRP)- for the last three and a half years. However, a September 19 High Court judgement ordered them to be shifted to the state-run MR Palayam elephant rehabilitation centre in Trichy.

Although the High Court allowed over three weeks to safely trans locate the pachyderms, officials from the Forest Department turned up at the Marrakanam camp on Friday and started forcing the animals into trucks. They even asked two of the elephant caregivers to remain inside the building and not step out when the animals were being whipped.

“They felt the elephants would not co-operate if they saw us and asked us to stay away,” Kundhavi Devi, the District Captive Elephant Welfare Committee member from Cuddalore told TNM. Kundhavi was one of the two people who was kept indoors for over two hours.

Six mahouts brought from the Topslip Annamalai Tiger Reserve in Pollachi handled the elephants. Efforts to shift them to trucks began at 11 pm on Thursday. At around 4:30 am, when the elephants refused to co-operate is when the mahouts began to use force.

“They were using bullhooks (a banned tool otherwise called as elephant goad) and sticks to thrash the animals. The elephants were bleeding after the mahouts hit them. In the end, the youngest one -21-year-old Jayanthi - was finally moved using a JCB,” a source aware of the incident told TNM.

The elephants who were looked after by trained mahouts of the Marakkanam camp were used to a chain free lifestyle and freedom for the last 3 and a half years.

“We never beat them, chained them or forced them to obey orders. They had plenty of food, water, space and freedom and we only used positive reinforcements on them. This is why they were petrified when they were forced them to enter trucks. They refused to move,” Kundhavi said.

The three elephants - Sandhya, Indu and Jayanthi - were bought by the Kanchi Mutt as temple elephants when they were 6 or 7 years old.

“The oldest one Sandhya is now 45 years old. Indu and Jayanthi are 35 and 21 respectively All were moved to the Marakkanam camp 3.5 years ago as they were not keeping well. They have been together and with the care we give, they have been able to recover and heal tremendously,” Kundhavi added.

The Forest department has now allowed the elephants caregivers at Marakkanam to accompany them till the MR Palayam reserve in Trichy, promising to take care of the animals well.

However, the elephants will no longer enjoy the freedom that they were used to at Marakkanam, believes Saeef Saif, a volunteer at Tree Foundation.

“The camp at MR Palayam was started just three weeks ago. The elephants will be tied up and water will be given through hoses. It took the forest department mahouts 7 hours to load Jayanthi into the truck. She was not given water when they moved her. These are all telling signs of how they will be treated after this,” Saeef adds.

The elephants will also be subjected to eight-hour-long drives in the trucks which could adversely affect them.

“Older elephants such as Sandhya should not be driven around for more than four hours. Even while loading and offloading them into vehicles, they can break their legs or get injured. Previously too, 2 elephants died due to broken legs and exhaustion after being offloaded roughly,” he added.

Several animal rights activities have also condemned the forest department for the brute use of force on the captive elephants.

The HC order to shift the elephants was passed on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by self-described animal rights activist S Muralidharan. The petitioner challenged the objective and expertise of the Tree Foundation and WRRP in taking care of the retired temple elephants, adding that their intent was not ‘to eradicate animal cruelty, but target Indian culture, customs and destroy elephants’.