HYDERABAD: Earlier this week, the picture of a 70-year-old bony elephant, Tikiri, decked up to participate in one of Sri Lanka’s grandest Buddhist parades, surfaced online. Minutes after the photo was taken, the elderly elephant had reportedly collapsed. A few days later, on August 13, which incidentally was World Elephant Day, the non-profit Save Elephant Foundation shared another picture of Tikiri.
Without any festive costumes or lights, Tikiri’s abnormally bony body with a limp trunk and tearing eyes was exposed and came as a jolt to every elephant lover. On Friday, following outrage from several animal rights activists, the Sri Lankan government ordered to have the ailing elephant taken out of the final parade on August 21.
As it turns out, Tikiri’s suffering is not one of its kind. Most elephants that are made to participate in long, tiring religious processions are under extreme stress, reveals a study by researchers from the Hyderabad-based Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB). Not only this, elephants have a poorer health condition than normal when kept under captivity at temples or zoos, finds the study.
Acute stress in elephants can lead to infertility, hyperglycemia, suppression of immune responses, imperfect wound healing, and neuronal cell death. Carrying heavy loads — which is the case in most processions — can multiply concentrations of stress hormones in an elephant by as much as three times the basal levels, the study notes.
The study analysed the concentration of stress hormones, known as glucocorticoid metabolites, in at least 870 dung samples of 37 captive elephants collected from four elephant camps — Mysore zoo, Mysore Dussehra temporary elephant camp, Mudumalai Tiger reserve elephant camp and Bandhavgarh Tiger reserve elephant camp.
Conducted at the CCMB’s Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES), the study observed that the concentration of stress hormones was higher in elephants from the Dussehra camp which were chained and made to work longer hours, than their counterparts at the zoo or forest camps.
The scientists also observed that the elephants of forest camps were much healthier due to unlimited access to resources and being released into forests during non-working hours, and access to mating with wild and other captive animals.
To ensure good health of captive elephants, the researchers suggest that participation of elephants in religious activities, processions and forest department activities should be minimised. They also point out that female elephants within the reproductive age (20 to 55 years) should not be used for stressful activities as it affects their reproductive cycles.