The Elephant Sanctuary, Hohenwald, Tennessee

MALACCA - A rare tuskless elephant which starred in the movie Anna And The King may be put down after it attacked its keeper at the Malacca Zoo recently.

Deemed too aggressive to be kept in a zoo, Adun may be sent to the jungles of southern Thailand to haul logs. -- NEW STRAITS TIMES Zoo officials have concluded that Adun is too dangerous to be kept in captivity.

However, zookeepers are hoping the 15-year-old jumbo can be sent to south Thailand to be used in logging activities.

'All our prayers are that the mahouts in southern Thailand will take the elephant,' said a source, who added that a team will be sent to Thailand soon.

Adun was three years old when it was caught in the jungles of Pahang and has been at the zoo since.

The former 'star' also attacked its keeper three years ago. In the latest incident on March 18, Adun seriously injured a keeper during a daily bath. -- New Straits Times

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Four elephants run over by train engine
rediff.com
March 31, 2003

Four elephants were crushed to death when a speeding train engine rammed into a herd of 12 elephants crossing a railway track in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu early on Monday morning.

The diesel engine, which was on its way to Dharmapuri from Salem, derailed following the collision, but the driver escaped unhurt, District Superintendent of Police K Periyaiah said.

The mishap occurred at Katteri, 80 km from Dharmapuri, on the Bangalore-Salem section of the Southern Railway.

A baby elephant was among the four which died on the spot. The rest of the herd encircled the derailed engine and began hitting it with their trunks, police said.

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Jumbo offerings for power gains

Sunday Leader, Sri Lanka
March 30, 2003
By Risidra Mendis

Despite strong protests by animal rights activists on the release of elephants from the Pinnawela elephant orphanage, five animals are to be released subsequent to cabinet approval this year. On the requests of five politicians, five male elephants are to leave their home in Pinnawela within the next few months.

Already two of the five "gifted without a cent paid" are with the new owners.

The Sunday Leader learns that these five ministers are offering the elephants in fulfilment of vows made before the general election in 2001. Minister Karunasena Kodituwakku offered a male elephant to the Ran Kaduwa Devale on March 5, 2003, while Minister Imthiaz Bakeer Markar offered a female elephant to the Aluthgama Kande Vihara on March 23, 2003 in the presence of Minister Kodituwakku.

Questions are now being raised by animal rights activists as to how a female six-year-old baby elephant named Kumari was offered to the temple when the authorisation was given for the release of a male.

Kumari together with Mihindu was gifted by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to the children of Japan as a gift from the children of Sri Lanka. This presentation was made to the visiting Japanese parliamentary delegation on April 29, 2002 at Temple Trees. The Japanese delegation were then to present the two elephants to Croatia to replace the only Asian elephant in that country.

However a protest staged by prominent animal rights activists in Sri Lanka days before the elephants were to be sent, ended with the animals remaining in the country.

Special request
According to a ministry official, when Minister Markar visited the Vihare having won the elections, the Chief Priest, Batuwanhene Buddha Rakkhitha Thero requested the Minister to donate an elephant to the temple. The chief priest had also requested for a female elephant.

According to reliable sources a request was then made by Minister Markar to release Kumari. Having obtained permission from the Japanese Embassy, the Minister had the necessary papers prepared by the Environment and Natural Resources Ministry, which in turn asked Director , National Zoo, Brigadier H. A. N. T. Perera to release Kumari.

While Brigadier Perera confirmed that two elephants (including Kumari) were released on cabinet approval three more are to be released soon. The Director also confirmed that Kumari was handed over to the Kande Vihare.
Questions are being raised as to why temples are requesting young female elephants. There are allegations that some of the gifted elephants are used for hard labour during off-season.

Male elephants cannot be worked for four to five months during the time of musk.

Kumari could have at least produced four to five baby elephants during her life time if she was kept at the orphanage.

To make matters worse, Kande Vihara has a Thai Tusker, who if bred with Kumari could lead to a mixed elephant species in Sri Lanka.

According to Penny Jayewardene, an animal rights activist in Sri Lanka, once an elephant is released to a private owner, nobody takes the initiative to check on how the animal is being treated. "The animal laws in the country mean nothing these days. Therefore the exploitation of animals takes place," Jayewardene said.

Commenting on elephants being released from Pinnawela to temples for participation in peraheras Jayewardene said all animals should remain in their natural habitat.
According to her elephants should not be used in peraheras as this is an exploitation of the animal. „Why can‚t there be a perahera without the participation of an elephant? If you love this animal you should protect it. Our culture does not ask for the exploitation of the elephant,‰ Jayewardene said.
According to reports three elephants were released from Pinnawela last year under the UNF government. Minister Rukman Senanayake and Minister Markar could not be contacted for comment.

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Probe ordered into elephant's death March 29, 2003 The Hindu By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI The Ministry of Environment and Forests has ordered an enquiry into the death of an elephant last month after it was captured in the Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh. arti Dhar

A three-member committee of experts will probe the circumstances that caused the death and also study how appropriate are the techniques adopted for the capture and training of the animal. arti Dhar

The committee will ascertain whether there had been a lapse on the part of any authority or persons and if irregularities had been committed. It will also suggest steps to avoid such incidents. The decision to institute the enquiry was taken by the Environment Minister, T.R. Baalu. arti Dhar.

Headed by the former Additional Director-General of Forests (Wildlife), the committee will have the veterinary officer of the National Zoological Park in Delhi, N. Panneer Selvam, and Director-incharge of the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India, S. Singsit, as members. It will submit its report within a month.

The wild tusker died on February 24. It was captured by Parbati Barua, a mahout, in the forests of Jashpur district of Chhattisgarh on February 2.

The mahout has come under a lot of criticism from environmentalists, including the former Union Minister, Maneka Gandhi, for using obsolete and torturous methods to capture and tame the elephant.

The project was terminated following the death of the pachyderm. Ms. Barua, who had been given the task of capturing and taming wild elephants that had killed about a dozen people in Chhattisgarh, has written to the Environment Ministry seeking its intervention in the matter to `stop injustice and harassment' being meted out to her in the form of false complaints and notices of prosecution.

She says the elephant died because of an injury caused by a dart that was unprofessionally used to tranquillise it. The injury became incurable and ultimately led to its death.

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Elephants given time to cross ITO bridge
March 26, 2003
Express News Service

New Delhi: The Delhi Traffic Police has sketched out a time-table for the 30 elephants living on either side of the Yamuna Bridge to cross over for their food and bath.

The police took action after animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi spoke to Commissioner R.S. Gupta, citing the Newsline report on March 18 (''Cops throw the book at hungry tuskers''). The report had pointed out that for two
weeks, the animals and their mahouts had been facing a lot of trouble every time they had to cross the bridge for fodder. Police considered them a traffic hazard and forced them to keep away. The animals went without food
for days.

In a meeting between the Delhi Traffic Police and the mahouts today, the timings in the different areas were discussed. As per the schedule, movement will be allowed between 10 pm and 6 am and from 12 pm to 3 pm in the
afternoon for routes outside the New Delhi district. Special permits will have to be asked for when the animals are to enter Central Delhi even for official functions.

The police has asked the mahouts to carry torches or blinkers when they bring the animals on road. The animals won't be allowed during VVIP movements even if it is during permissible timings.

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Bangkok to continue elephant crackdown
Official laments lack of shelter and care
Bangkok Post, March 21, 2003
Apiradee Treerutkuarkul

City hall will continue to crack down on elephants roaming the streets of Bangkok although a senior official doubts strict legal action will work in the long run.

Tanakorn Kunawutti, deputy director of thetsakit, or city inspectors, said a proposed measure banning elephants from the capital's streets would not work because the government lacked the money to build shelters for elephants or to hire staff to take care of them.

"Forcing mahouts to pay fines will not stop them entering the city," he said.

Following a sharp increase in the number of elephants in Bangkok, authorities have been cracking down on mahouts who bring their elephants to work in the city.

The Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation, which earlier convinced police to take tough action against mahouts, again urged Bangkok governor Samak Sundaravej to issue a regulation banning elephants from the city.

Soraida Salwala, the foundation's secretary-general, said the regulation would be another way to keep elephants out of the city because mahouts would face fines of up to 10,000 baht and elephants would be seized as state property.

Mr Samak said he had not received the letter, but was already talking to the legal affairs division about whether the city could issue such a regulation.

He would ask Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra for advice on how to help elephants and mahouts.

The city would advise the government to allocate 300 million baht to support the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to set up elephant shelters at national parks where elephants would be trained to return to the wild, he said.

Mr Tanakorn said cabinet should find a long-term solution.

"Any attempt to ban elephants from roaming Bangkok needs strong and long-term cooperation between relevant agencies," he said.

He supported an idea proposed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to pay mahouts to help forestry staff patrol national parks with their elephants.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Forest Industry Organisation should also promote the plan, he said.

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Elephant rampage investigated in Sumatra
The New Zealand Herald
March 20, 2003
A team of Indonesian police have been dispatched to Kerinci National Park, Sumatra, to investigate the motive behind a recent elephant rampage that destroyed 56 houses built at the edge of the wildlife sanctuary.

Wild pachyderms from the park stampeded the settlement, 580km northwest of Jakarta, on March 13, leaving houses flattened but no human casualties.

Kerinci police chief Dwi Hartono said investigators were working on the assumption that the elephants had acted in response to illegal logging and infringement of their foraging grounds by illegal farms in the park area.

He added that police had recently discovered an illegal marijuana plantation in the park.

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PRACHUAB GOVERNOR VOWS ACTION ON ELEPHANT DEATHS
Thai Press Reports
March 14, 2003

The governor of Prachuap Khiri Khan province yesterday promised to take urgent action against elephant poaching, amid concern by environmentalists that past operations had not been directed at the true cause of the problem.

Visiting Kuiburi district yesterday as part of his pledge to visit districts under his jurisdiction, Mr Prasong Phitoonkijja and his deputy Mr Samreng Chueachavalit were told by the district chief, Mr Tawatchai Wissamol, that the elephant deaths in Kuiburi district had most likely been at the hands of local poachers using home-made weapons.

The district chief all but ruled out the possibility of local people killing the elephants in revenge for their destruction of local pineapple fields, saying that while the elephants caused some damage to pineapple plantations, in the past this damage had been considerably more extensive.

The provincial governor responded by ordering all parties concerned to ensure that Kuiburi's wild elephant population came to no harm, and urged local officials to arrest those responsible for the shootings.

But Mr Suraphol Duangkhae, secretary general of the Wildlife Protection Fund of Thailand, cautioned that a speedy resolution to the problem could be a long way off. Saying that he had been following Kuiburi's elephant problem for several years, Mr Suraphol pointed out that it was a complex issue that had not always received the correct attention from the authorities concerned.

He called on agencies concerned to enforce stringent measures to solve the problem, and said that the best remedy would be to ensure that the elephants' natural forest habitat remained undisturbed.

He also voiced doubts that local people would dare to fatally shoot at elephants.

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Abused captured elephant dies at hands of his captors
INDIA: March 14, 2003

JASHPUR, India - His skin rubbed raw from chafing against ropes tying his front and back legs to tree-trunks, the newly caught wild elephant hangs his head in what looks like abject despair.

A few days later he is dead. Reverentially, the local people dig a deep pit for him, cover his body with a white sheet, fling in flowers and grimly start shovelling earth into the grave of an elephant who wildlife campaigners say was tortured to death.

In a country that reveres the elephant as a god, the death of Vasant Bahadur - roughly translated as "Spring Warrior" - has stirred a national uproar, as campaigners demand an end to ancient practices used to catch and tame the huge mammals. The story started in the thickly forested hills of the former principality of Jashpur, in the central state of Chhattisgarh and around 930 km (580 miles) south-east of New Delhi, when a herd of wild elephants strayed in from a neighbouring state.

Wildlife campaigners say the elephants were driven out of their natural habitat by deforestation and mining - mainly for iron ore - and went in search of food.

They raided villages in a desperate search for grain and rammed down mud-walled houses to quench their thirst with home-made alcohol.

At least 35 people were trampled or gored to death and the state called in Parbati Barua, India's only female elephant catcher who learned the trade from her father, to catch the elephants. Vasant Bahadur was the first one she caught.

"The elephants will be captured and trained by me, and then given to a government department for use in tourism, patrolling and logging," said Barua, a small woman in a red dress and rather unlikely blue flip-flops.

Drawing on a family tradition of elephant-taming going back nine generations, she tracks a herd for up to 15 days on foot, by jeep, or on the back of one of her two pet elephants.

"This is a very dangerous job, but I like it. I've been with elephants since I was a child. It is a very loveable animal," said Barua, who caught her first elephant at the age of 14.

But this time, something went wrong. And unusually for such a remote place, six hours drive from the nearest big town, it was captured on film by the Wildlife Trust of India.

ELEPHANT SPREAD-EAGLED

On day one, the film shows what looks like a young elephant, his feet bleeding, being brought into the clearing which Barua has made her temporary base.

Wildlife experts say Barua is using an ancient method known as "mela shikar", where hunters, riding two tame elephants, chase a herd into the ground, target an elephant and squeeze it from both sides until they can lasso it and drag it out of the herd.

At a film screening in New Delhi, the Wildlife Trust of India shows Vasant Bahadur wincing as his tusks are sawn off. He is then pulled down with ropes, spread-eagled, and beaten with rods.

Repeatedly he tries to get up, his eyes wide with fear.

And then it shows the funeral, followed by a clip of Barua saying simply that "this one couldn't forget his freedom".

"Some of the methods she is using are extremely archaic," said Vivek Menon, executive director for the Wildlife Trust of India. He campaigns for other methods of handling wild elephants.

The Trust says the 25,000 to 27,000 Asian elephants in India should be given special protected forest reserves.

When they stray, they should be driven back into these reserves through "safe" corridors, identified by satellite mapping. And if they must be caught, this should be done as humanely as possible, with trained vets on stand-by.

"The moment the elephant is in your hands, you should take every step to comfort the animal," said Menon. "And definitely don't truss it up like a chicken."

Speaking in Jashpur a few days before Vasant Bahadur's death, Barua shrugs off questions about how miserable the animal looked.

"That's very natural. He's lost his independence," she said, adding elephants sometimes refuse to eat after being caught.

Vasant Bahadur, the skin of his legs and trunk rubbed white from the ropes, was tied up in a small clump of trees, surrounded by lush green rice fields, dwarfed by Barua's two tame elephants. He barely stirred, even when his photograph was taken close-up.

NO LIKING FOR PEOPLE

Barua was unwilling to discuss her methods for capturing and training elephants and was visibly not pleased to see us.

"I like all animals except homo sapiens," she explained.

Cut off from communications like telephone and e-mail, it is impossible to get a comment from her after the elephant's death.

The Wildlife Trust of India quotes a vet saying the elephant had no internal injuries but probably died of stress and hunger.

The Trust is campaigning for Barua to be stopped - capturing elephants requires national government permission - and it wants talks on restoring elephant corridors and creating reserves.

But as with everything in India, things move slowly.

Wildlife campaigners fear villagers will not wait, that they will take the law into their own hands and kill the elephants.

Said one local villager who looked after Vasant Bahadur: "It would have been better to shoot it straight away, than kill it slowly."

Story by Myra MacDonald

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Indian wins Green Oscar for conservation work
March 14, 2003
Express India

London: Founder-Director of the Bangalore-based Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre Professor Raman Sukumar has won the Whitley Golden award, the most prestigious international award in the field of environment conservation, for his work in saving endangered Asian elephants.

Sukumar received the award popularly known as the "Green Oscar" along with a cash prize of 50,000 pounds from Princess Anne at the Royal Geographical Society in London on Thursday night.

This is the fourth year in succession that an Indian has bagged the award. Last year, a Pune scientist, Dr Anand Karve won the award for developing a technique to produce clean fuel from sugarcane waste.

In 2001, Vivek Menon, Chief of the Wildlife Trust of India, was chosen for the award for his fight against poaching of elephants. In 2000, Gargi Banerji, a botanist, won the golden award for work in conserving medicinal plants in Himachal Pradesh.

After receiving the award, Sukumar said he planned to spend the cash prize to provide support to local farmers to mitigate the impact of elephants on their lands as well as to help his field research team which acts as a "watchdog"-identifying threats such as poaching for ivory and monitoring the health of the elephant population.

The Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre, founded by Sukumar works closely with the government's project elephant. His area of operation is the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu where there are 8,000 elephants in the wild, the largest concentration in the world.

He said it offered the best opportunity of ensuring the long-term survival of the species.

Sukumar said his work dealt with three main problems-destruction and fragmentation of the elephant's habitat as a result of development projects; conflict between elephants and humans; and reduction of the herds by poaching.

To provide a safe habitat to the pachyderms, Sukumar carried out surveys and sought to establish protected corridors, so that elephant herds could move from one area to another. To prevent conflict, he experimented with forms of fencing and sought to get the co-operation of villagers in schemes to keep the animals away from crops and human habitation. He coordinated with the wild life authorities to combat poaching.

Others who received cash awards of 25,000 pounds each included Jon Paul Rodriguez of Venezuela for his work on saving yellow-shouldered parrot in Venezuela, Victor Vera of Paraguay for his conservation work in the Paraguayan Atlantic forest, John Waithaka of Kenya for developing community-based eco-tourism business, Gregor Maclennan of Peru, for helping local people in the Peruvian rainforests and Dale Lewis of Zambia, for converting poachers into skilful farmers.

At the award ceremony, Edward Whitley, the founder of the Whitley awards, described Sukumar as "a truly exceptional person, who most probably knows more about elephants than anyone else in the world and has devoted his professional life to their survival."

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Elephants faced with extinction amid destruction of food sources: Illegal logging mainly to blame
Pichit Saisaengchan, Bangkok Post
March 14, 2003

Wild and domestic elephants are on the verge of extinction as their food sources run down, the leader of a local elephant village says.

Speaking during a seminar to mark Thai Elephants Day in Surin province yesterday, Suriya Ruampattana, kamnan of tambon Krapor in Tha Tum district, said a severe shortage of food at home had forced handlers to take their animals to Bangkok and other provinces in search of food.

Wild and domestic elephants would soon become extinct as their food sources had been destroyed, he said. Illegal logging had harmed forests where wild jumbos lived.

Domestic elephants were also running out of food as forest reserves were turned into eucalyptus plantations.

He criticised the ban on elephants roaming Bangkok streets, saying the government put all its energy into helping urban people and ignored the plight of elephants and their handlers.

Thai Elephants Day would be meaningless in the absence of measures to solve elephants' problems, Mr Suriya said.

Some elephants did not go without food yesterday. Thirty-five domestic elephants took part in a feast put on in their honour in Kanchanaburi's Sai Yok district..

The fair was presided over by Sai Yok district chief Seri Rattanasewi. Bananas, sugarcane, water melon and grass were prepared.

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Govt must look at the whole picture of elephants
Laurie Rosenthal, The Nation
March 13, 2003

Instead of an 'elephant round-up', more study of the animals in both the tame and the wild states is needed to provide for their welfare

The piecemeal attempts by the government to help Thailand's elephants leaves much to be desired. The efforts, which bring to mind the parable of blind men and the elephant, may cause more problems than solutions.

Pittaya Homkrailas, president of the Elephant Lovers' Club, voiced concern that the government has not fully studied the elephants' problems.

"Government officials have shown little understanding of tradition or the relationship between people and their elephants," he said, adding that their decisions have been based only on the so-called "wandering" elephants - the animals that, with their mahouts, ply urban streets begging for food and money.

These, according to Pittaya, represent only a small segment of the country's total elephant population.

The wild elephant population, he said, is estimated at between 1,500 and 1,800 animals; domesticated elephants number between 2,500 and 3,000. Of the domesticated elephants, more than 1,000 work in tourism, an estimated 1,500 or so live in villages or work at illegal logging.

Only around 200 wander the roads of the country.

Each group faces a different situation, he said. "You can't solve all the problems just by looking at wandering elephants."

Yet even the wandering elephants and their mahouts seem to be misunderstood. In the 11 years that he has worked with owners and elephants, Pittaya has seen several kinds of people who wander about the country with their elephants: the mahout is unemployed and has no other means of earning an income; he may have borrowed to buy his elephant and now needs urgently to repay the money; the elephant may be too aggressive in the village; or the mahout prefers a footloose existence, loving the freedom of the road.

In all these cases, however, the elephant is always taken care of.

"The authorities just see the elephants when they're on the streets," said Pittaya. "They don't see the other times of day, when the mahouts work as hard as they can to ensure that their animals are as healthy as possible."

It's true, he admitted, that some owners treat their animal as if it were a piece of equipment.

"But you can't consider all the mahouts 'bad guys' because of a few people. Instead of treating everyone as if they had done something wrong, why not seek ways to understand each group and then to improve their lot?" he added.

Pittaya also commented on the lack of coordination between the various ministries, agencies and departments charged with elephant welfare. At this point, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Forestry Industry Organisation, the Livestock Development and the Royal Forestry

Departments are all responsible for various aspects of domesticated and wild elephants.

"Often a villager who has a problem concerning his elephant has to go from official to official to find out which government body he should consult," Pittaya said.

Just recently, the Tourism and Sports Ministry also became involved when the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) announced an international tourism boycott to protest the way baby elephants are weaned from their mothers.

"Peta based their assumptions on one tape, which may have been faked," said Pittaya (who hasn't seen it). "Why didn't they come to assess the situation for themselves? We would have welcomed their interest."

Again, it's true that some people treat their young elephants cruelly, but also, again, "It's a small number," Pittaya said.

For him, the government spokespeople who came out in defence of the weaning ceremony don't understand that much either.

"The ceremonies in the villages have been developed over time to ensure that an elephant can be a part of village life and not cause harm to anyone," Pittaya said. "This training is crucial because the elephant is so large and strong. If it is to live with us, it has to accept a chain on its leg. We must be safe."

Government agencies, however, have already shown how little they understand the relationship between the mahout and elephant, he said.

"How can you take 1,600 domesticated elephants away from their mahouts, give the animals new mahouts or just set them free in the jungle?" Pittaya said. "Of course, having all elephants live in the jungle would be the best way, but at present, we can't even protect our wild elephants, who are still killed by hunters using guns and electric wires."

Although with the best of intentions, the government's "elephant round-up" will be detrimental to the elephants rounded up.

A mahout might choose an elephant, he pointed out, but then the elephant itself chooses whether to accept that mahout.

"You can't play mix-and-match with these animals," he said. "Their nature will not accept it."

Of equal concern to Pittaya is that the government's moves are eroding Thai culture.

Done the correct way, the training of an elephant, starting with its weaning, is an intrinsic aspect of Thai tradition, he explained.

"The ceremonies all pay respect to the elephant, as well as ensuring that it becomes a trustworthy member of the village and cultivating the relationship between the elephant and the mahout," he said.

The ceremonies involve shamans, who pray to the spirits for the right time to conduct each part of the training.

Why blame only government officials, Pittaya said, when Thai people themselves don't understand or accept the role that the supernatural plays in the training of elephants?

"Some Thais try to forget this or simply look down on it as superstition," he said. "But it's important. It's our culture. It defines me as a Thai, and by erasing this aspect, you're erasing a part of me as a Thai." One solution, for Pittaya, is education and even more education. "We must show tourists our elephant culture, and we should help Thai people understand it too," he said. "We should be proud of who we are."

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ELEPHANT ROUND-UP: It's pay-out time for pachyderms
March 12, 2003
The Nation

The government will hire all the mahouts and elephants currently roaming around Bangkok for Bt15,000 a month to patrol forests in the provinces, according to a plan approved by the Cabinet yesterday.

The scheme has caused an uproar among forest volunteers, who earn just Bt105 a day, far less than offered the mahouts.

Natural Resources and Environment Minister Prapat Panyachatraksa said the project would kick off next month with a Bt21-million budget in a bid to rid the capital of its meandering, often troublesome - and troubled - pachyderms. "The mahouts will be offered jobs and allowed to choose the national park where they want to work," the minister said.

It has been estimated that there are 200 elephants plying Bangkok's busy streets in the hope of handouts from tourists and residents alike.

Prapat said police would round up any mahouts and elephants found in the capital after the scheme gets under way and order them to the national parks.

While the mahouts can choose their preferred province, he said, they have no right to turn down the job offer. "The measure should be effective, because they will get jobs and salaries," the minister said.

He insisted that this was a long-term project, even though the initial budget is for six months only.

Prapat said the Cabinet had also approved a Bt2.5-million plan to implant microchips in the elephants as a means of official registration.

He said the Department of National Parks, Wild Animals and Plant Species, the Highway Department and the National Police Office would jointly prevent elephants entering the capital.

"We will take action against any offenders," he said.

Prapat said long-term measures included proposed law amendments to stop domesticated elephants being transported by vehicle, and the establishment of an elephant-conservation foundation under Royal patronage.

"Our main goal is to send about 1,600 domesticated elephants into forests or areas that better suit their lives," he said.

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Jogi govt sends Barua packing
Indian Express
Ashwani Sharma
March 12, 2003

Raipur: Following the controversy over the death of a male tusker captured by her, the Chhattisgarh government has cancelled its Rs 36-lakh contract with Parbati Barua. The world-famous woman elephant catcher leaves her six-month-long operation to catch wild tuskers in the state midway.

The state had been facing questions from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests ever since the death of Basant Bahadur, captured by Barua's team in Jaspur district of Chhattisgarh.

However, the government will not be imposing a penalty on Barua for the death of the tusker. Instead, Barua has been paid Rs 6 lakh as expenses for bringing her team and camping in the area for the operation and asked to wind it up.

The state is also doing a rethink on the idea of catching the tuskers, which have killed at least 34 people in the state in the past three years. Now it is exploring possibilities of instead pushing them back into Orissa and Jharkhand.

''After Barua leaves, we will launch a new operation, in a week or 10 days, under the guidance of Project Elephant,'' Chief Wildlife Warden Anoop Bhalla told The Indian Express today.

Bhalla confirmed that there were at least 14 to 17 elephants in the area which had caused a huge damage to crops and properties in Jaspur, Raigarh and Korba districts. A high-level team led by Director, Project Elephant, S.S. Bisht has already visited Jaspur and Raigarh areas and offered suggestions on the problem.

Bhalla, who accompanied the team, said a proposal for financial and technical assistance is being sent to the Centre.

Because of her expertise and repute, Barua had been assigned the task of catching the rogue tuskers and domesticating them by the Chhattisgarh government. However, the slow and tortuous death of one of the elephants - captured on camera by an associate of Green Oscar-winner Mike Pandey - during training sessions at Barua's base camp changed everything.

Local villagers, who had earlier complained about the damage to their crops , regret what happened to Basant Bahadur. ''The elephant had stopped eating and drinking. The injuries on his body and the blood oozing out of them were a painful sight,'' says Karam Chand, a local sarpanch. Union Minister of State for Forests and Environment Dilip Singh Judeo, who hails from Jaspur, has asked for a detailed report from the state.

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Wild elephants need some living space: Experts
CHANDRIKA MAGO, Times of India
March 10, 2003

NEW DELHI: As elephants squeezed out of their habitat search for new homes, tramping crops and raiding villages, activists are arguing the need to cut through the red-tape, knit the states into a common policy and give back elephants some of their living space. The argument has the nod of policy-makers but who is listening?

In the latest incident in Chhatisgarh, herds are suspected to have strayed from Jharkhand, where their habitat has been encroached and mined. Toying with the idea of creating a sanctuary, Chhatisgarh gave a contract for the capture and taming of a few elephants. After a capture gone wrong, it is reportedly keen to drive the herds back to Jharkhand or Orissa.

Even if it succeeds, would Jharkhand have the space its migrants need? The Union government's director-general (forests) M K Sharma, argues the need for a tribunal on the pattern of the Cauvery river water dispute to resolve inter-state conflicts on habitat. "We should have a mechanism like this. We must provide habitats, preserve existing corridors for elephant movement and perhaps link sanctuaries through narrow corridors so these animals can move and mingle. The solution lies in inter-state dialogue."

Since this is not happening, many of the 28,000 wild elephants are moving out of home ranges in search of a new life and the 200 kg of food and 200 litres of water they need daily. Locals find rough and ready methods to deal with them as states search for a policy which may vary from capture and taming to translocating.

Capture isn't a viable solution, argues Mike Pandey, wildlife film-maker and Green Oscar winner. "The vacuum created by a captured elephant will be filled by another herd," says Pandey, whose team shot footage of the elephant death in Chhatisgarh.

"If you fracture herds of these social animals, will their aggression increase or reduce? How will it solve the conflict?" asks Vivek Menon of the Wildlife Trust of India. If their original habitat is being destroyed, capturing a few elephants will not stop them coming.

The priority, says S C Sharma, who retired last year as additional director-general in charge of wildlife, has to be habitat improvement, a revival of elephant corridors and trenches to keep them away from agricultural lands. If their numbers exceed the carrying capacity of the area, capture may be necessary.

"There is no 100 per cent solution," says N K Joshi, who is in charge of Sharma's earlier portfolio. Activists argue there is no more time to waste. "If we are serious about conservation, we have to find a way," says Pandey. Menon concurs, adding the country must decide whether it wants these animals or not. If it does, it must act to save them and think in the long term, well beyond crisis management and kneejerk political reactions.

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Wild Asian Elephant Tortured to Death
NEW DELHI, India, March 6, 2003 (ENS) -

An endangered wild Asian elephant caught in a management program sanctioned and paid for by a state government in India, has died at the hands of its captors. The torture that claimed its life, and the death itself, was filmed by an award winning crew hired by the state to document its elephant management program, according to the International Fund for Animal Welfare and its Indian partner the Wildlife Trust of India.

Environment and wildlife filmmaker Mike Pandey's crew recorded the animal's treatment and death while covering the elephant program in the central Indian state of Chattisgarh.

The TV crew had been commissioned to film the $76,000 project by the regional government, which sponsored the work to manage human-elephant conflicts. The government attempts to manage these conflicts by capturing wild elephants displaced by interaction with humans and taming them to become working animals.

In a statement today, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) described the torture to which the young bull elephant was subjected. "The wild Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) was first captured by lasso before being tied down and having its tusks hacked off with a saw, while being repeatedly jabbed with spikes and hit with bamboo rods. It was later denied food and water, and eventually died of stress, starvation and thirst after 18 days," IFAW said.

The two wildlife protection organizations today called on the Indian government to suspend the capture of more elephants in Chattisgarh and conduct an inquiry into this animal abuse incident.

"We are shocked and dismayed by the gruesome and disturbing footage of this torture of an elephant," said Grace Gabriel, deputy director of IFAW's Wildlife and Habitat Program, who is on a visit to India. She said that IFAW and the Wildlife Trust of India would distribute the television footage of the elephant capture worldwide in the next few days.

"Mahatma Gandhi once said, 'The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.' This government should be ashamed for sanctioning this act of deliberate cruelty to animals," Gabriel said.

The Wildlife Trust of India was asked to advise the state government about the elephant management program. The organization's report, which showed that the current capture action was unnecessary, was shelved.

"We were invited by the government to do a rapid assessment of the situation in January 2002. However, this report was ignored," said Vivek Menon, executive director of Wildlife Trust of India.

"This primitive and archaic elephant capture method should long be abandoned. There are humane methods available today that ensure the minimum amount of stress to animals while in human contact," Menon said. "Those that are responsible for this abuse of animals are in direct violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. They should be brought to justice."

The 2000 IUCN Red List classifies Asian elephants as endangered due to habitat disruption and human encroachment. It is estimated that between 28,000 and 48,000 Asian elephants remain in the wild.

Distributed in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107.

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BANGKOK (Reuters) -

The environment ministry has proposed offering between 50,000 and 100,000 baht ($1,165 and $2,330) to handlers, who earn money selling fruit to tourists who feed the elephants, to employ the tuskers in patrols against illegal logging.

Some elephants could also be released into the wild. The ministry's proposal, which is due to go to the cabinet for approval, also includes a plan to set up an elephant hospital and reserve.

"When most elephants get sick, their owners cannot afford to have them treated and some of the mahouts (handlers) cannot take care of them," said ministry official Teerapart Prayurasiddhi. "The emphasis will be on releasing the elephants into areas where they used to live in order to help restore forest areas to their past state."

Many elephants and their handlers have been drawn to the city because environmental protection laws have reduced traditional logging work. ($1=42.78 baht)

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Identity cards mulled for urban elephants
The Star
By M. VEERA PANDIYAN
March 4, 2003

THE 1,600 elephants located in the concrete jungle of Bangkok may soon be carrying "identity cards". The move is among the short-term measures to be discussed by the Cabinet to resolve the problem of jumbos roaming the city's streets.

Currently, owners or handlers of the elephants have to carry permits to bring any pachyderm in and out of the metropolitan area. "The elephants will also have to have identification cards so that owners will not be able to use another animal's relocation permit," said Deputy Prime Minister Suwit Khunkitti.

He said the government was also planning to amend a law that classifies elephants as a mode of transport. The age-old legislation effectively places the animals under the Transport Ministry instead of the National Parks, Wild Animals and Plant Species Department.

He said the government would consult all the relevant parties, including elephant keepers and owners this month, before proposing the amendments to the law.

On its part, the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry is preparing a huge purchase order - to buy up all the urban elephants. It is seeking Cabinet approval for the estimated cost of Baht 1.7bil (RM170mil) for the jumbo purchase.

A recent government survey showed that 1,600 pachyderms with permits live in shelters within Bangkok while 200 unidentified elephants roam the streets. The elephants would be bought at prices ranging from Baht 50,000 to Baht100,000, depending on their health.

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Sumatra's rare species threatened
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Parapat, North Sumatra
March 4, 2003

Ninety local and foreign environmentalists warned against the possible extinction of a total of 226 flora and fauna species in Sumatra because of intensive deforestation and development, and rampant poaching.

According to the environmentalists, the government has no alternative but to review its environmental policy to save the rare species, otherwise the large island, which is known for its rich biodiversity worldwide, would witness an environmental catastrophe over the next five years.

The environmental experts and activists, some from India, the Netherlands, Japan and Britain, convened here for five days for a meeting jointly sponsored by International Conservation and the Leuser Management Unit to assess the conservation program and management plan in Sumatra.

Barita Oloan Manullang, a senior species-conservation specialist, confirmed that during the five-day meeting that ended on Friday, the experts and activists identified 90 species of flora and 176 species of fauna which were under threat of extinction. The list would be handed over to the Indonesian government for further action.

"We have no powers but a deep concern for Sumatran biodiversity, which, if not conserved, will disappear in a relatively short time. The government has the authority to enforce the law and to make environmental policy," he said, adding that the meeting had concluded that the threats had reached alarming levels.

Barita said that the Sumatran forests were home to tens of thousands of Sumatran tigers, rhinos and elephants ten years go but at the present, the number of individuals belonging to the protected species was little more than 2,000, scattered throughout the remaining forested areas along the Bukit Barisan mountain range stretching from Aceh to Lampung.

"The number of Sumatran tigers and elephants remaining is little more than 2,000, while the number of Sumatran rhinos is less than 50. The latter are only found in national parks in Riau, Bengkulu and Lampung," he explained, saying that rare reptiles and amphibians like the Sumatran Iguana had already disappeared.

Elisabeth Widjaya, an environmental researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), said that over the last two years as many as 44 species of flora had become extinct while 18 others were under threat of extinction.

"The flora species facing extinction include what is locally known as rukam and bamboo, which were both easily found on the mainland several years ago," she said.

Barita blamed the extinction of the rare species on rampant poaching, logging, forest overexploitation and increasing development activities.

"The government must pay proper attention to these rare species. Otherwise, they will certainly become extinct over the next five years.

"The government must take action against individuals, companies or any institutions found guilty of destroying the environment, and it must review all laws threatening the flora and habitats of rare fauna in forest areas on the island," he said.

He also urged the government to set up a single authority, to handle environmental and biodiversity conservation, instead of numerous ministries as at present, so that the issuance of conflicting regulations and rulings on the environment could be avoided.

Human activities threatening flora ad fauna in Sumatra:

1. Road projects traversing the Gunung Leuser National Park in Aceh

2. Rampant illegal logging in numerous national parks in Sumatra

3. Intensive conversion of forests into farmland and plantations in Riau, South Sumatra, Lampung and Bengkulu

4. The granting of government-protected forest areas to farmers in Lampung

5. Rampant poaching of rare species in national parks for trading on the international black market

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Elephant tramples over two in Chhattisgarh
Indo-Asian News Service
Raipur, March 3

A rogue elephant trampled to death a woman and her grand-daughter in Chhattisgarh.

According to reports reaching here, the incident took place in Ganeshpur village of Raigarh district in the northern part of the state in the wee hours of Sunday.

The rogue tusker first started destroying houses on the periphery of the village. Alarmed villagers escaped to a safe spot leaving their houses, but 65-year-old Jarbi Bai got left behind with her grand-daughter. Both were trampled to death.

The elephant destroyed as many as eight houses.

Wild elephants have killed about 30 people in Chhattisgarh over the past two years and damaged property and crop worth millions of rupees. The state's northern districts like Jashpur and Raigarh are the worst affected.

Parvati Baruah, a pachyderm expert from Assam, has been on the trail of rogue elephants in Chhattisgarh for months now in a bid to try and catch them. But the exercise has produced no results yet.

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Tree-top tourism in West Bengal's elephant zone
Krittivas Mukherjee, Indo-Asian News Service
Kolkata, March 3

Are you a wildlife enthusiast thirsting to live the comic strip fantasies of Phantom's treetop houses in deep jungles?

Or do you dream of getting up close to a herd of marauding wild elephants and their thumping tantrums?

If yes, pack your rucksacks and head for West Bengal.

Thanks to an upcoming tourism project in the Belpahari and Banspahari jungle ranges of Midnapore (west) district, it will soon be possible to watch wildlife uninhibited from well-camouflaged treetop houses.

Forest department officials said the government had decided to capitalise on the district's rich flora and fauna, particularly its substantial elephant population.

The Rs 5.2 million project will have tree houses built with logs and with thatched or tin roofs. These treetop cabins will have electricity and water connections and can accommodate about six people.

"First, we will start off with about 10 such houses and then build more such treetop cabins in other forest ranges," an official said.

The government hit upon the plan after learning that some locals had built small shacks atop trees in the Belpahari range and were renting them out to wildlife enthusiasts who came to watch elephants on moonlit nights.

The forest department could also probably invite private participation in the tourism venture at a later stage.

"One should not be worried about security because we are very careful in choosing the trees for the houses. The occupants will have to climb up with the help of ladders," the official said.

The elephants in these parts usually travel between the Dalma forest range in neighbouring Jharkhand and the forest tracts of Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts.

These districts have been witnessing a violent tussle for existence between poor villagers and elephants because of shrinking forests.

This made the government consider giving wild elephants a home of their own. The plan is to build a habitat for elephants so that they do not stray into the villages.

Forest officials are considering building some treetop houses inside the proposed Rs.1 billion elephant habitat to ensure higher visibility of the pachyderms.

The wild elephants may soon have their own travel corridor through the jungles to help them avoid contact with humans that result in casualties on both sides.

Herds of elephants from the Dalma forest in Jharkhand come down every year to villages along the West Bengal-Orissa-Jharkhand tri-junction in search of food.

They destroy ripe paddy crop and trample down huts. Villagers chase away the animals with flaming torches and the noise of crackers and drums.

But with every passing day, the elephants seem to lose their fear of these objects. Experts said constant confrontation between man and animal was the basis of these elephant's newfound courage.

Repeated confrontations have also taken their toll. While about two-dozen people die from elephant attacks every year, the state forest department has come across evidence of the animals being poisoned by villagers

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India to implement new road safety program for elephants
Radio News Australia
February 27, 2003

India to implement new road safety program for elephants Radio News Australia
February 27, 2003

The sight of a blinker at night on India's roads may soon signal more than an approaching vehicle. It may mean an elephant is on its way.

About 30 domesticated elephants in New Delhi are to be fitted with reflectors to avoid road accidents at night.

Wildlife experts say elephants are easily hit in darkness and humans can fare just as badly as the animals.

The reflector program, arranged by the Wildlife Trust of India and Britain's Blackpool Zoo, follows fatal accidents involving elephants.

New Delhi's domesticated elephants live with their caretakers on the banks of river Yamuna, where they get ample space and water.

They're mostly used during marriage processions and other traditional functions.

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Lin Wang, an 86-year-old Asian elephant taken prisoner by Chinese troops in World War II, died of old age Wednesday at Taipei Zoo.
TAIPEI (Reuters)

Grandpa Lin
The world's oldest Asian elephant, 86-year-old Lin Wang, seen in this undated photograph, died of old age on Feb. 26, 2003, at the Taipei Zoo. The much-loved elephant was a World War II veteran that carried cannons for the Japanese army in Burma. He was awarded to Chinese troops as a war trophy after the defeat of the Japanese and moved to Taiwan with the Nationalist army in 1949.

In his youth the venerable beast, known to Taiwan children as Grandpa Lin, dragged Japanese army cannon and supplies through the jungles of Burma, now known as anmar, until his capture in 1943.

Then a sprightly 26, Lin continued his army service on the Chinese mainland and later on aiwan. In 1954, he was retired to the zoo in the company of a female elephant, Ma Lan.

The island's children loved him, and the zoo threw birthday parties for him each year. The people of Taiwan mourned his death by burning paper money and lighting incense.

A zoo statement said Lin, in poor spirits since Ma Lan died last year, fell sick a few days ago and stopped taking food.

It appealed for T$5 million (US$144,000) in contributions to preserve the body of Lin, believed to have been the world's oldest Asian elephant.

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Tribals cleared from elephant reserve
By Venkitesh Ramakrishnan
BBC correspondent in Sultan Bathery, Kerala
February 21, 2003

The authorities in the southern Indian state of Kerala say they have cleared a wildlife sanctuary which was illegally occupied by more than 1,000 tribal people.

Officials said armed police and wildlife officials carried out the operation. It took the authorities two days to clear the Muthanga Wildlife Sanctuary. The sanctuary, which is in Wyanad district, is famous for its elephants.

Bows and arrows

The operation to clear the forest began on Wednesday.

Armed police were called in after tribals attacked wildlife officials with traditional weapons such as bows and arrows.

Some reports said at least five people were killed in pitched battles and police firing.

The authorities said more than a thousand tribals had illegally occupied the sanctuary on 3 January. They were demanding five acres of land for each family which they said had been promised by the state government.

The occupation of the sanctuary led to protests by wildlife activists and forest officials who said that the tribals were obstructing a vital elephant corridor - a path used by roaming herds of elephants in southern India.

Appeal rejected

The Muthanga sanctuary is situated in the middle of a 300-square-kilometre forest. It forms part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Noolpuzha River, which flows through the sanctuary, attracts elephants from different parts of Nilgiri range during the summer.

The Chief Minister of Kerala, AK Antony, had requested the federal Environment and Forests Ministry to allow the tribals to live in the sanctuary. But his appeal was rejected. The ministry said such a move would have set a wrong precedent and led to similar demands from tribals in others areas.

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Jumbos on the March
News24.com
February 16, 2003

Colombo - Nearly 100 elephants paraded in the capital on Sunday as their handlers demanded the government allow the capture of more of the beasts from Sri Lanka's jungles to train for religious ceremonies.

No religious function in this predominantly Buddhist country is complete without an ornately decorated elephant, but owners say that because of a ban on capturing the mighty animals in the wild since the 1950s, the stock of domesticated elephants is depleted and growing too old to breed.

Sunday's jumbo procession went to a junction in the centre of Colombo, famous as a protest venue among trade unionists and political parties, where the elephants were made to stand up in a row as if picketing. Later they marched to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's office, where they delivered a petition.

"I'm ageing, I can't go in processions as before," read one banner carried on an elephant. "Who is there to carry the tooth relic after us?" read another.

Elephants are often used in religious processions to carry caskets containing sacred items like the island's famous tooth relic of the Buddha.

Nilanga Dela of Captive Elephant Owners' Association said that there are 170 elephants owned by private individuals in Sri Lanka and more than half of them are old and cannot be used in processions any longer.

He said the government banned capturing wild elephants in the 1950s, and many elephants captured before then are now old and unable to mate.

Dela said the association has requested the government at least auction elephants kept at an orphanage for baby elephants, which was opened 27 years ago to save the beasts, whose population in the wild is also under threat.

As Sri Lanka's forests have been cleared for farmland, elephants have begun invading farms for food, prompting villagers to erect electric wires to protect their land, although this risks killing elephants. - Sapa-AP

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'Operation Tuskers' claims first success
Ejaz Kaiser, Hindustan Times
Raipur, February 8

Chhattisgarh government's 'Operation Tuskers', launched under Parbati Barua, has caught one wild male elephant with the help of tranquiliser guns and Barua's two female tuskers yesterday, officials claimed. The Operation aims to secure the state's borders against the menace of wild elephants coming in from outside its borders.

Parbati Barua is an internationally-acclaimed elephant-catcher. On record there are 32 elephants creating menace in three districts of north-eastern region of the state. Talking to Hindustan Times, Parbati Barua said that she is here to fulfill the mission for the state and is confident about it.

There are 14 rogue elephants in Korba and Dhramjaigarh, 12 in Badalkhol sanctuary (Jashpur) and 6 in Raigarh. Phase II, currently underway, has a renewed approach by bringing into service the use of tranquilizer guns to catch elephants. Forest department has arranged two such guns. The service of Kanha forester N K Bishen, the only known tranquilizer gun expert in MP and Chhattisgarh is availed. Four wild elephants are to be trained and handed over to state government by Barua and rests to be traced and driven away to their original habitant. "Now we also need to find their entry points from the states of Jharkhand and Orissa", said Barua. Chhattisgarh is not a natural habitat for these elephants.

Informing to this correspondent at the Badalkhol Sanctuary near Narayanpur, the Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) V S Silekar, who was camping there, said, "We have already paid six lakhs as compensation towards loss of life and more than 25 lakhs in about 2500 cases of property and agriculture damage".

So far tuskers have claimed 30 lives. Phase I of the operation, culminated in December, could not achieved the desired goal, accepts Silekar. He did not put direct blame on elephants for loss of human lives. "In more than ninety percent of cases persons coming closer to wild elephants, either out of curiosity or by chance, lost their lives", said the CCF. There has been a report of one elephant death from Korba till date.

In addition to tranquilizer guns for sedating the elephants, the use of other technical applications, involvement of government veterinary doctors and medicines were seen on the operation camp area. "We get only 25 minutes after each tranquilizer shots are injected into wild elephant to capture and take control of it", said Silekar. If failed to succeed within this time, the elephant may go awry leading to great damage to life and property. Later Silekar added, "Wild elephants proving most destructive to life and property would be eliminated".

The first training base camp constructed with the invested of rupees 5 lakhs at Laxmipur near Dharamjaigarh during phase I hasn't been brought into use and now lies functionally redundant. The communication link during operation between forest personnel at the Badalkhol camp and the team of Barua on the hunt for elephants in the forest is through wireless sets.

The forest officials here believes that the disturbances created in the natural habitat of elephant at Jharkhand and Orissa by encroachment, cutting of trees, and other human activities prompted these wild elephants to migrate to Chhattisgarh, where dense jungles have come to their fondness. Silekar informs that the involvement with 'operation wild tuskers' has led to the enlightenment of the forest department personnel about the noble animal. "We learned that elephant visibility is good at night, have great camouflaging powers, smelling sense very acute, are fond of liquor and paddy", said Silekar amusingly.

Once state forest department planned and sought the approval of Government of India to start 'Project Elephant' here, but with elephant number barely 32, all of them migratory and the Chhattisgarh not the natural habitat for elephants, approval was not granted.

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The Elephant Can Never Be Fully Domesticated
The Hindu, Ignatius Pereira
February 7, 2003

The basic truth about elephants is that they can never be fully domesticated. The domesticated elephants always nurse a tendency to return to the wild and never return. Thus, they are wild though they appear tamed by obeying certain commands, according to Jacob V. Cheeran, a retired veterinary Professor.

A wrong notion is that a domesticated elephant would imperatively remain submissive and respond to the commands of the master as in the case of domestic animals such as the dog or the horse. Any breach by an elephant is regarded as an "unruly behavior that warrants suitable punishment''.

The elephant is genetically designed to be naturally wild even after domestication and expecting something contrary amounts to compelling it to achieve the impossible. A domesticated elephant may appear to be tame, but
instinctive compulsions will inevitably drive it to exhibit its inherent wild side often passively and occasionally in a more violent manner.

From the latter side, the most misconceived aspect is the musth' phenomenon. The popular conclusion is that an elephant in musth is a rogue one which has to be subdued.

Such an attitude to an elephant in musth' is "cruelty at its height and a criminal ignorance of understanding its natural side.'' The musth' is a biological necessity in the bull elephant to ensure that the species is guaranteed from extinction. It is a stage when the level of the male sex hormones in a bull elephants blood is very high with the specific intention of establishing dominance over other bulls. The phenomenon is seasonal and it never takes place at the same time of the year for all the bulls.

According to Dr. Cheeran and his contemporaries, K. Radhakrishnan and K. Chandrashekaran, musth' is unavoidable in a bull elephant, vis-a-vis, the mating urge. Every male animal in the wild, right from the docile deer to the aggressive grizzly bear, exhibit this tendency during the mating season to ensure that its genes get translated into another generation.

The intention is to warn and ward off other male competitors for the female of the species in heat. For bull elephants, musth' ensures a good degree of muscle power to combat, chasing away other bull elephants in the area and establishing the right and chance to mate with a receptive female. "Musth is a physiological phenomenon must for all healthy male adult elephants".

Wild bull elephants in musth' are seen to be less aggressive than the domesticated ones, as since the former get the chance for mating. Once the mating is over, the phenomenon subsides and it becomes normal. The same bull
soon afterwards would succumb and run away from another bull in musth', even lesser in age and inferior in size, which the former had chased away while in musth'. That is how nature has designed things.

In the wild, things are different. According to the editor of the Kerala unit of the Journal of Indian Veterinary Association, T.P. Sethumadhavan, the male-female sex ratio in the wild stands at 1:90 respectively. Poaching
for tusks has played an important role in the bull population going down and hence there is no dearth for a bull in finding a receptive partner.

In the case of domesticated ones, it is again only natural that the tusker targets its nearest contact, the mahout, "in an urge demanding a mate''. The communication gap results in casualties. Dr. Cheeran says " elephants have a
remarkable memory power and turn emotional''. It can recall all the cruelties inflicted by the mahout and turn against him in frustration.

According to S.S. Bist, director of Project Elephant, there is a tendency to dismiss the domesticated elephants as another category of cattle and this could be the reason why domesticated elephants have not received due
attention from conservationists despite the fact that are also classified under schedule-1 of the Wildlife Protection Act. In fact, under the Act, domestication has been permitted in the overall conservation interests of the species, he said.

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State to frame rules on upkeep of captive elephants
Times of India
Feb 6, 2003

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Alarmed by the frequent instances of elephants running amok and goring mahouts to death, the Kerala government proposed to shortly come out with a set of rules on management and upkeep of captive elephants which will include penal provisions to check maltreatment of the animal.

"This is for the first time in the country such rules are being framed, addressing a whole of range of issues relating to ownership, upkeep and welfare of elephants," E K Bharat Bhushan, secretary, forests and wildlife, said here.

The rules would be made under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, which currently applied to wild animals only, but a section of the Act would be extended to captive elephants also, he said.

"When you own a vehicle, you are governed by certain rules like roadfitness, pollution control etc, absolutely essential for the safety of theowners as well as the public. The same logic is applicable in the case of elephants, used in large numbers for temple festivals and for manual work in Kerala," he said.

Within the last fortnight, two mahouts were gored to death by elephants in Ernakulam district. There have been several instances of the pachyderms going berserk reported recently with animal rights campaigners blaming cruelty towards the animal as the main reason for their wild reaction.

The rules will specify norms to be followed when elephants are paraded during festivals, transported by foot or by vehicles, medical check-up and provision of water,fodder and accommodation and training of mahouts, Bhushan said. It will also lay down how to handle them at times of 'masth', during when pachyderms mostly turn violent, he said.

Parading elephants for hours on end during festivals and putting them to prolonged physical toil would be strictly dealt with, he said. The rules would specify the type of harness to be put on the animal and chains with sharp edges or nylon ropes would not be permitted. Tuskers with festering ankle sores caused by iron chains is a common sight on Kerala roads.

The rules would prohibit elephants being made to walk more than three hours or 30 km at a stretch. Those taking them for long treks would have to carry reflectors during night in the front and rear of the animal for road safety. An elephant hit by a truck near Kollam died on the roads of the injuries an year back.

Keeping elephants without being fed sufficiently would be made an offence. An underfed elephant recently barged into a vegetable shop near Kochi to satisfy its hunger.

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Government plan to buy elephants fails to warm Wildlife Fund
Bangkok Post
February 3, 2003

The government's plan to buy domesticated elephants and shelter them in Kanchanaburi is only a short-term solution, says Surapon Duangkhae, secretary-general of the Wildlife Fund Thailand.

Leaving domesticated elephants in Kanchanaburi forest without qualified handlers could lead to problems, and they might turn violent without proper care, he said.Some elephants in Lampang had died due to the lack of proper care, he added.

"Elephants tend to form a close relationship with their mahouts. Thus it is more difficult for elephants to be in the forest without their handlers,'' Mr Surapon said. He was reacting to the government's plan to buy elephants for 20,000-30,000 baht each from mahouts who roam city streets with their animals. Bangkok police recently started a crackdown on the elephants in conjunction with the Friend of the Asian Elephant Foundation. They seized five elephants and sent them to the Elephant Conservation Centre in Lampang.

Mr Surapon dismissed the government's offer as unrealistically low. "Even the price of a buffalo is now approaching 40,000 baht.'' Pensak Chaksuchinda, of the senate committee on environment, said an elephant was worth at least 200,000 baht.

Mr Pensak, who chairs a working group to solve elephant problems, met a group of elephant owners in Surin at the weekend to try to convince them not to descend on Bangkok with more than 100 elephants for their protest against the crackdown. The group plans to arrive in Bangkok on Wednesday to ask Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to create an elephant cooperative.

Mr Surapon said the government needed to look back at the origin of the problems why elephants had to leave their homeland. They should start with helping mahouts with basic needs and welfare. Preecha Phuangkum, director of the National Elephant Institute, said the elephant problems needed to be solved by the government, as non-governmental organisations and the private sector could only do so much.

The government planned to allocate 300-600 million baht from lottery sales to Deputy Agriculture Minister Newin Chidchob to resolve the elephant problems in Surin. The amount should be sufficient to tackle the issues, Mr Preecha said. However, he complained: "Our institute has never received this amount of money from the overnment although we requested the budget a long time ago.'' He questioned the government's plan to purchase elephants. "What will they do with the elephants after they have bought them?''

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Mahouts, 70 elephants begin march to Bangkok
Bangkok post
January 27, 2003

About 70 elephants and their handlers left Surin this morning on a march to Bangkok, where they plan to protest against a push for legislation banning pachyderm from the capital's streets.

After leading around 100 mahouts during a rally yesterday in Tha Tum district of Surin, village official Suriya Ruampattana strongly criticised the Asian Elephant Foundation for pushing the law, which would prohibit
handlers from seeking handouts in Bangkok.

"If passed, the law would have a huge impact on the mahout, yet the bill was drafted without their input,'' he said. "The elephant foundation and NGOs pushing the law understand very little about the relationship between a man and his elephant.'' Mr Suriya called for the immediate release of five elephants confiscated recently in the city that were being kept at the National Elephant Institute in Lampang. "Authorities had no rights to seizethe animals," he said.

Asian Elephant Foundation veterinarian Preecha Paungkham said his organisation would return the elephants on the production of ownership documents.

"The mahouts know the animals have not been permanently seized, but theywant us to transport them to Surin,'' he said.

Mr Preecha said many elephants in the city were owned by businessmen who rented them out for huge sums.

"The poor no longer own elephants,'' he said. ``Rich businessmen buy the animals and rent them to the poor.''

Mr Preecha called for police to intercept the mahouts before they reached the capital.

"Police could block the protest by enforcing the Highways Act, which prohibits allowing big animals onto major roads,'' he said.

Meanwhile, national police chief Pol Gen Sant Sarutanont said police would not take any preventative action, but would arrest the mahouts if they drove their elephants onto city streets.

Mr Suriya said the mahouts would reach Bangkok in about 20 days.

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Mahouts speak out against bill
Pichit Saisaengchan, Bangkok Post
January 25, 2003

About 500 mahouts and their elephants gathered here yesterday to call for the immediate scrapping of proposed legislation on elephants, saying it was absurd.

The mahouts, mostly from Surin and Buri Ram, said the bill seeking to prevent the elephants from roaming the streets was far from reality.

The bill, proposed by the Lampang-based National Elephants Institute, will prohibit abuse of elephants, including begging, and calls for confiscation in such acts.

"How can they propose such a law? We don't want to take them out on to the streets. But if we don't do, we will starve to death, men and animals,'' said Suriya Ruampattana, a protest leader.

The government should provide real help to mahouts rather than enacting such a law, he said.

The bill also states that domestic elephant owners have to register their animals and pay an annual fee.

It also prohibits trade in and the import or export of elephants or parts, unless approved by ministerial regulations. Those who fail to comply face confiscation of their elephants.

The protesting mahouts also demanded the release of the elephants which were seized during the crackdown and sent to Lampang.

In a nine-point petition submitted to deputy governor Chonchuen Boonyanusan, the mahouts also called for the dissolution of the National Elephants Institute, or limitation of its duties.

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Thai Elephants Struggle With Life in Urban Jungle
By Ellen Nakashima
January 20, 2003, The Washington Post

BANGKOK, Thailand - Her ancestors once marched majestically through the jungle, and were ridden into battle by kings; some were even accorded royal titles. Tonight, Lamduan, a Thai elephant, is tromping in the far lane of
an eight-lane highway, against oncoming traffic. The three-ton pachyderm lumbers through the streets, now onto the sidewalk, now across four lanes onto a median strip, past the Fortune Town shopping center, past the Utopia massage parlor, across a bridge over a canal. A bus switches lanes to avoid a collision. A car honks. Taxis whiz by.
She is guided off the highway by her trainer, or mahout, who rides high on her back, and turns down an alley toward her next meal stop: an open-air restaurant and karaoke bar beside the neon-lit Honolulu Love Boat Club.

"Wanna buy some sugar cane to feed the elephant?" asks her owner, a young man who walks ahead of Lamduan like a carnival barker, hoping diners will part with 30 baht - about 70 cents - for three stalks of sugar cane that
the elephant would snuff up eagerly with her trunk and roll delicately into her mouth.

Although elephants have been venturing to the big city during the dry season for decades, in the last 15 years or so they have roamed the streets of Bangkok virtually year-round. Some urbanites find the elephants adorable. Others find their presence in the city deplorable, a sad case of animal abuse. On any given night in Bangkok, as many as 70 elephants wander the city and its outskirts, a phenomenon that experts say is bred of environmental mismanagement and sheer greed.

Depending on the crowd, an elephant can bring in from $30 to about $70 a night. Baby elephants are particularly prized, their cuteness drawing even more customers wanting to feed them. Typically, a mahout and one or two
other people will work with one elephant. Though they split the proceeds, what they take home monthly can approach or exceed the average monthly salary of $300 that a worker with a bachelor's degree earns.

But because of complaints by activists and some tourists, police have begun to crack down on elephants in the city. They have tried it before, but the elephants and mahouts always returned. They say that this time they really
will enforce the laws: There's one banning animals from obstructing traffic, another banning them from dirtying the road. Animals are not legally permitted on highways, and it is illegal to remove them from their home region without a health certificate.

On Friday, police seized five elephants. A week earlier, for the first time, police arrested two mahouts; their animals were confiscated and sent to an elephant care center in the north. Soon mahouts will face up to four years in jail and a fine of 100,000 baht, about $2,300, for bringing elephants into the city.

"Elephants do not belong on the streets of Bangkok," said Lt. Col. Thanawat Wattanakul, the police official who made the arrests. Besides creating a traffic hazard, he noted, mahouts lack third-party insurance for the elephants in case they damage something: "If the elephant steps on a car, who's going to pay for that?"

The elephants venture into shopping and dining districts and sleep in urban scrub forests on undeveloped lots. They have been hit by vehicles, fallen into city swamps and often trapped in sewage drains, and one recently went
berserk, attacking cars until police felled him with 200 bullets.

Activists lament the conditions these tropical jungle natives face in an urban jungle of 7 million people. Trees in the city are not tall enough to shade the animals, so they suffer sunburn. The grass is suffused with mercury from vehicle exhaust, so 80 percent of the city elephants have stomach or intestinal problems, said Roger Lohanan, secretary general of the Thai Animal Guardian Association.

Lamduan's owner, Sutha Salangarm, said the elephants would not be in the city were it not for avaricious businessmen, backed by a shortsighted government in his home province of Surin in the southeast, who replaced
the forests that elephants used to feed on with inedible eucalyptus trees.

And, he said, he has no work when the rice-growing season is over. So, for the last two years, he has borrowed money to rent a truck to bring Lamduan to Bangkok. "People don't know how hard it is to keep an elephant alive," he said. Kampa, the mahout, gets up at 4 a.m. to feed his charge, then bathes her in the afternoon. He spends most of his waking hours with her. At 29, Kampa is single - "I don't have time for a girl," he said.

Activists say mahouts use privation as an excuse. "There is a difference between making money to survive and making money to be rich," Lohanan said. "What they want is to be rich."

Salangarm counters that until the government alleviates poverty in the rural provinces, he will continue to come to the city to earn money to feed his wife and two children.

As the evening wears on, Salangarm's sack of sugar cane lightens. But there is more in the basket high on Lamduan's back. So the group, in search of customers, turns up another road, past the hospital, over another bridge, and into the Bangkok night.

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Thai government drafting law to prevent elephant cruelty — January 18, 2003
ASSOCIATED PRESS
January 15, 2003
San Diego Union Tribune

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thailand has announced it is drafting legislation to help protect elephants against cruelty and mistreatment following criticism from a U.S.-based animal rights group.

The proposed law also would designate elephants as the official national symbol and provide regulations for trainers and owners, the government said in a statement late Wednesday. And authorities would work closely with police to supervise substandard elephant training camps.

"The Thai government attaches great importance to the protection of elephants and to promote their well-being," it said.

In October, the U.S.-based group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, released a 10-minute video showing people beating bound and caged baby elephants, some of which were bleeding from their ears.

The group demanded that Thailand enact laws to protect elephants against such abuse, and threatened to launch a tourist boycott of the country if it didn't.

Initially, the government questioned the legitimacy of PETA's video, and whether it was shot in Thailand.

But Wednesday's statement said the video showed a ceremony of the Karen hill tribe in which baby elephants are separated from their mothers.The Karen are an ethnic minority that lives along the Thai-Myanmar border.

It said the Forest Industry Organization, which oversees the protection and training of elephants, has placed "the Karen mahout (elephant trainer) and the injured elephant in question" under the National Elephant Institute, a conservation center.

The Forest Industry Organization will distribute information and organize seminars for the Karen "in an attempt to change their attitudes and ways in elephant training," the statement said.

Elephant viewing and rides are popular attractions in Thailand's key tourism industry. The elephant historically was prized as a sturdy means of transportation during wars and ceremonial royal processions.

In India, thousands of people gathered in Kaziranga National Park in Assam to take part in the region's first elephant festival.

They braved the winter chill along the Brahmaputra, one of Asia's largest rivers which flows 700 miles across Assam to get to the two-day event.

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Elephant-free zone needs government support—January 16, 2003
Porpot Changyawa
Bangkok Post, January 16, 2003

An attempt to make Bangkok an ``elephant-free zone'' by an animal rights group and city police is likely to fail without government support, Bangkok Governor Samak Sundaravej said.

"Even the government has trouble keeping elephants out of the city,'' said Mr Samak in response to the campaign launched by the Friend of the Asian Elephant Foundation and city police on Monday.

The campaign seeks to instruct police about existing laws which could be enforced to keep elephants out of the city. It wants roaming elephants seized and made state property, and their handlers punished.

The foundation estimated there were 40 elephants wandering the streets of Bangkok, while city hall early last year counted just over 200.

The government was the only effective agent to drive elephants out of the city and provide them with better living conditions, Mr Samak said on Wednesday.

He said the government should spend up to 300 million baht to buy these elephants and set up shelters for them close to the wild.

There was nothing else the city could do to solve the elephant problem, he said. "We have already done our job in suggesting a solution to the government. Now it's up to the government to work on it.''

Chanat Lauhawattana, Forest Industry Office chief, was confident the foundation's campaign would be effective.

Unlike in the past where arresting elephants and their mahouts proved difficult for the police, the foundation would become a plaintiff so that police could take legal action against mahouts, he said.

The elephant centre in Lampang province, where facilities for elephants were available, could also provide care for the animals while their mahouts were locked away.

Mr Chanat said there was no need for such a large sum as Mr Samak's project would require because it would be based on currently available facilities.

However, he said that in the long run the foundation would need more comprehensive laws on elephants to deal with strays.

Buying the elephants might be necessary to protect them in cases where mahouts resist the law and refuse to give up their elephants.

Deputy Prime Minister Korn Dabbaransi has called for a meeting of concerned agencies next Tuesday.

The meeting would look into how to run businesses to support and sustain elephant conservation, such as organising jungle tours and selling products made by elephants such as paintings, as well as paper made from elephant manure, Mr Chanat said.

"This is the only way to manage the elephants from now on,'' he said.

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Indian Elephant Festival to Reduce Tension Between Man & Animal
By IOL South Asia Correspondent
Islam Online.net
January 14, 2003

NEW DELHI - To promote tourism, increase awareness about wildlife and reduce "tension between elephants and man", the northeastern Indian sate of Assam celebrated a two-day elephant festival from January 12-13, at Mihimukh near Kaziranga National Park, a wildlife sanctuary in the country.

The decision to celebrate such a festival was taken after growing attacks on elephants and the death of five elephants in the state's Sonitpur district in October last year.

They were killed by farmers whose standing crops and property were destroyed by the rampaging elephants.

The occasion was organized by the state's forest ministry and the country's national airline, Air India.

Nearly 275 domesticated elephants participated in the largest festival of Asiatic elephants. A decorated elephant danced by tapping his feet on the tunes played by his master.

When the dance ended, he lifted a scarf with his trunk and placed it around the neck of a tourist as a mark of honor.

Braving the chill, thousands of people walked through freshly harvested rice fields to participate in the region's first elephant festival.

"The Asian elephant is in difficulty and is in need of support. I am indeed happy to see this magnificent sight," said Mark Shand, British author of best-seller Queen of Elephants. He is a frequent visitor to the state.

Parbati Barua, one of the world's a few female elephant trainers, invoked Ganesha, the Hindu god with the head of an elephant on a human child's body. She prayed to the crowd not to kill elephants.

Growing encroachment on forest land, felling of trees and consequent shrinking of elephant's habitat have ntensified human-elephant conflict in Assam over the past few years.

In the year 2000, only one elephant was poisoned to death, but 17 elephants were killed in 2001. Their death raised global concern.

In 2002, too, elephants continued to be killed. The state government started a series of awareness campaigns. The elephant festival near Kaziranga was a part of the state government's awareness campaigns to save elephants.

The state government announced an award of U.S.$200 (Indian Rs 10,000) for information that could be helpful in saving elephants from being poisoned or that could lead to the arrest of persons guilty of killing them.

Villagers resort to the killing of elephants to save their crops and houses being damaged by herds of wild elephants. They also kill them in anger when they see that they have inflicted heavy damage.

The state government has approached the federal government for financial assistance to compensate the farmers whose crops and homes have been famaged by elephants. The motive is to dissuade people from killing them.

To save the remaining 5, 246 elephants, after a head count taken in 2001, the state government decided to declare nearly a 10,000 sq km stretch of land in four different forest areas as elephant reserves in 2002.

The same year the federal government allocated rupees 10.8 million for setting up forest reserves. The government released rupees 7.0 million in 2002 and promised to pay the rest later.

Assam is home to more than half of India's 10,000 elephants. It has the world's largest concentration of Asiatic elephants.

The Kaziranga National Park alone harbors an estimated 1,100 elephants.

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Indian temple finds elephant gifts a heavy burden
By Rajesh Ravi, Reuters
January 14, 2003

COCHIN, India, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A prominent southern Indian temple saddled with dozens of elephants offered by devotees is planning to charge for their upkeep because turning down the expensive gifts could anger donors who fear divine wrath.

The temple to Hindu god Krishna at Guruvayur, some 300 km (188 miles) north of Trivandrum, capital of the coastal state of Kerala, has 62 elephants, said to make up the world's largest herd of captive elephants.

The temple spends about 20 million rupees ($417,500) a year to feed the elephants that adorn majestic religious processions.

The animal is a symbol of the elephant-headed god Ganesha, worshipped by Hindus as a remover of obstacles.

Devotees offer elephants on fulfilment of their wishes or to pray for the removal of hurdles in their life.

P.V. Subramaniam, deputy administrator of the temple, told Reuters on Tuesday 10 elephants were donated to the temple last year alone, and more could spell financial trouble.

"We are thinking of restraining further influx of animals by asking for 400,000 rupees for the upkeep of the elephants and also introducing a method by which a devotee can offer an elephant symbolically by paying 500,000 rupees," he said.

Each elephant needed three regular keepers, called mahouts, and food worth about 300 rupees ($6.30) every day and the temple also needed more land to maintain them, Subramaniam said.

JUDICIAL INTERVENTION
The temple had in 1986 banned the donation of elephants but had to restore the practice after devotees went to court and obtained a judicial order against the ban.

Devotees fear divine wrath if they do not donate elephants.

P.N. Balaram, who has already offered eight elephants to the temple, told Reuters he would fight its authorities if devotees were restrained from offering elephants. He said many elephants had died of mysterious diseases after the 1986 ban.

"And on probing the reason through astrological means God (Lord Krishna) conveyed through an oracle that He was angry and insulted," Balaram told Reuters.

But he said devotees were also assured that the elephants would not suffer for want of funds.

"The deity conveyed that the temple administration needn't worry about resources or revenue," Balaram said. "Devotees will bring the necessary revenue."

(US$1 = 47.9 Indian rupees)

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Elephants arrive for the festival with bleeding feet
Indiaoutlook.com
January 9, 2003

NAGAON (ASSAM), JAN 9 (PTI) Two three-month old baby elephants today arrived with bleeding feet after trekking more than 100 km from Howrahghat in Nagaonto Kaziranga National Park for the first Elephant Festival on January 11.

The elephants 'Rabi' and 'Dilbahadur' have more in store for them - there are no proper medicines and their mahouts and owners have to depend on indigenous methods for treatment sources in Nagaon district Elephant
Owners Association said. However a forest official, denying knowledge about their plight said, the ill pacyderms would be rendered treatment if the report was found to be true.

'Rabi' and 'Dilbahadur' are not alone. The sources said the forest officials, in charge of the high-profile festival, had harassed the elephant owners to bring their animals to it. The charge has been denied by the state forest department. Association President Hem Goswami said the seminars on man-animal conflict and training courses for mahouts slated during the festival hardly address the real issue - that of the animals' and mahouts' maintenance in the light of the Centre's ban on tree felling and animal capture from the wild, he said.Goswami, who owns a 43 year-old 10 feet tusker 'Debilal', wonders whether the festival would be of any benefit to either the animals, their mahouts or their owners.

'Debilal', set to be the cynosure of all eyes at the festival, was caught on the Republic Day of 1969 from Karbi Anglong district and has acted in several popular Assamese films including "Kakadeuta, Nati Aru Hati" (1982), "Dadu, Nati O Hati" (1983) and TV serial "Aranya". He was also instrumental in the capture of two other elephants "Pakhila" and "Bulbuli", later sent to Austria and Hungary respectively.

The festival is being sponsored by Assam government and Air India, whose offices abroad had been publicising the event and the state forest department was flooded with offers for the trip here.

More than 200 elephants of various ages have arrived for the festival which would be participated by prominent tour operators from across the world. A large number of foreign and domestic tourists were also expected to join in the event.

Elephant experts from abroad, including noted British wild life writer Mark Shand, Director of Thailand's Elephant Institute Ehoan Ghkrum Preeche are scheduled to participate.

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Indian Elephants Attack Photographers
By Habib Beary
BBC reporter in Bangalore
January 17, 2003

Cameramen hoping for some exclusive photographs have been attacked by rampaging elephants in the Indian state of Karnataka. It happened after the cameramen attempted to photograph the elephants while they were hiding in the forest.

Earlier, the elephants were believed to have gone on the rampage near a national park destroying a banana plantation and a crop of pulses on Thursday.

Forest workers are now trying to drive the elephants away from the area, close to the state capital, Bangalore.

A total of five people were injured, including two villagers and the three cameramen who went too close to photograph the elephants.

Senior state forest official, BMT Rajeev, said it is happening more regularly as the animals' habitat is rapidly taken over by residential and office complexes.

A young local villager, Balaram, had offered to escort the cameramen and took the group towards a eucalyptus grove where the elephants were hiding.

But they got too close for comfort.

The elephants charged, knocked Balaram to the ground and attacked the cameramen.

Hearing their screams for help, local villagers rushed to rescue.

Police said the injured were being treated at a nearby hospital.

Forest officials say elephants have been straying near the city for the last couple of years because of fragmented forests and clogged elephant corridors.

A bus driver was mauled to death by a herd at a village near Bangalore last year.

And at least six people have been killed in the last two years by elephants.

Cultivation has spread over the last few years - shrinking elephant territory in the Bannerghatta-Anekal forest region which stretches on some sides into neighbouring Tamil Nadu.

Karnataka has around 6,000 elephants according to a survey conducted last year.

BMT Rajeev said: "Last year, we had elephants straying well into the city. The elephant corridor has to be widened to prevent such incidents."

His department spends over 100,000 rupees yearly on firecrackers to drive out elephants from entering Bangalore. But help seems to be at hand.

A leading science institute is looking into a warning system for farmers to alert them to the threat of marauding elephants.

The project is expected to be ready by October 2003.

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Rising Poaching Undermines Case At Cites
Zimbabwe Independent (Harare)
January 17, 2003
By Ndamu Sandu

LAST week's poaching of four black rhinos in an Intensive Protection Zone in the Sinamatela area of Hwange National Park will further undermine government's standing in regard to the Convention on International Trade Endangered Species (Cites).

Conservation sources this week blamed the poaching on illegal settlers and bemoaned the lax security in the area, which is supposed to be highly-protected.

Mines, Environment and Tourism minister Francis Nhema confirmed the poaching when contacted for comment.

"I can confirm that the four rhinos were killed by poachers whom we are hot on the trail of," Nhema said.

He however dismissed suggestions that security was lax in the area.

"Poachers can hit whether there is security or not," he said.

Government's relations with Cites have been frosty since 1998/99 after the environmental body refused to downlist elephants from Appendix I to II, to enable trade in ivory. Government on the other hand has been demanding the
right to trade in ivory saying the increase in the number of elephants and rhino was decimating forests.

Elephant and rhino horns are the main targets of poachers.

The latest poaching incident flies in the face of a government policy document promoting sustainable wildlife management as an integral part of the land reform programme.

The Zimbabwe Independent revealed last year that poaching in Lowveld conservancies had destroyed 60% of the wildlife.

Settlers have taken up plots in conservancies which were created to protect endangered species. Game has also been under siege on resettled farms.

The government document was crafted in July by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management in tandem with two internationally-recognised wildlife conservation groups.

It is estimated that 50% of Zimbabwe's wildlife has been poached in the last two years, which has cost the country at least $6 billion in lost tourism and Safari revenues.

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Village on guard after elephants kill 12
iafrica.com
13 Jan 2003

Police have been deployed to guard villages in the hills of southeastern Bangladesh from marauding wild elephants that have killed at least 12 people, officials on said Monday.

Police have been told to keep vigil and warn panic-stricken villagers of any incursions by the elephants, which cross into Bangladesh from the forests of neighbouring India in search of food.

"We have asked the local police to take measures for protecting the villagers from wild elephants in remote areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts," Abdul Khaleque, a senior police officer in Chittagong, told AFP.

Villagers say some 20 people have been killed by the elephants over the past two months. Officials confirmed 12 deaths and said homes and crops have also been destroyed.

Police are urging the villagers to be careful not to anger the tuskers.

"The wild elephants have become furious possibly because their natural habitats have been disturbed by growing human population," said Shamsul Alam, a forest officer in Rangamati.

Villagers have tried to drive the animals away by setting off firecrackers or hurling stones, only enraging the elephants who return with a fury and destroy homes and rice paddy fields, said Abul Bashar Mia, another forest
officer.

He said forest officials are not allowed to harm the wildlife, but that police have fired blanks to try to scare the elephants away.

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Elephants Wreck Havock in Kibwezi
Daniel Nzia, East African Standard
January 12, 2003

Marauding elephants have invaded parts of Kibwezi constituency in Makueni District.

Area MP Kalembe Ndile yesterday complained that more than 20 rogue elephants have destroyed crops in the past few days.

Ndile said the bumper harvest local farmers were expecting may now be a dream.

The MP threatened to lead his people in killing the elephants if the Kenya Wildlife Service dos not act fast.

He appealed to the KWS to drive the elephants back to the Tsavo East National Park from where they have strayed to stop further destruction. "We have been complaining about the frequent invasion and destruction of farm
produce by the marauding elephants for long and we shall not tolerate this menace any more," he said.

He called on the Government to allow people evicted from Kyulu Hills several years ago to resettle on their former farms.

Kalembe claimed the people were evicted on political grounds adding their strong support for the Opposition then cost them their land.

The elephants have destroyed maize, beans, and other farm produce at Kikunduku, Kyaani, Metava and Nzouni villages in the area.

Kinyanmbu-Utithi ward councillor Joseph Kabutha has also expressed concern over the elephants menace saying parents were being forced to escort children to and from school following the invasion.

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