Loki’s * Message:

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What Future for India’s Elephants?

(Elephant Cruelty: A Worst Case Scenario)

By Dr. Michael W. Fox
Chief Consultant, India Project for Animals and Nature

In July 1998 the Tamil Nadu State Forest Department captured a crop-raiding elephant in South India. This 35-40 year old makhna (tuskless male) sustained severe injuries in the process of being captured, and being dragged, drugged, and goaded in chains for 8 days to the Teppakadu Elephant Camp in the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. The official report stated the journey took 3 days.

A video taken by a TV station documenting edited segments of the capture revealed that:

• Because the capture team had no elephant ropes that were not rotten, a truck was used to carry heavy chains, but for some reason was several kilometers away when the elephant was caught.
• This meant the chemically immobilized makhna received additional injections until the truck arrived, putting the elephant at risk from drug overdose.
• Severe bloating, elevated temperature, and prolonged recovery from the drugs resulted.
• The chains were wrapped and wired around the elephant’s lower legs very tightly and were twisted and tied like a tourniquet. This shackling was neither supervised nor inspected when completed by the attendant veterinarian. It was immediately evident that the legs would be damaged, especially the left foreleg where a hook on the chain was digging deeply into the skin and the ulnar tendon beneath.
• During the 2-hour recovery period from the immobilizing drug, and until the makhna was able to stand and walk, the video film documented repeated and unnecessary goring by five trained elephants (kumkis) on command by their mahouts. The ropes put around the makhna’s neck, and the leg shackles, were pulled in opposite directions on several occasions when the elephant was trying to get up, making it impossible for him to actually get up.
• When he was standing up, with his left foreleg shackles being pulled so tight that the foot was off the ground, he was rammed from behind by one kumki and gored in the face by another positioned in front of him. How often this deliberate cruelty occurred could not be determined since the video had been extensively edited judging from the date and time displayed on various segments.
• The elephant’s entire body, except for an abscess on the right shoulder region, showed no injuries when he was lying immobilized and when he first stood up. His overall physical state was excellent in terms of body fat and skin condition.

* Loki, the Norse messenger-god, was the name chosen by Deanna Krantz for this elephant beause he is the messenger to the world about the plight of Asian elephants, captive and wild.

• According to mahout informants the makhna was in such good condition that the five chronically malnourished kumkis had difficulty pulling and controlling him during the 8 day journey to the elephant camp. He was injected several times with a tranquilizer during the journey.
• Though smaller than these tuskers, the makhna smashed the kraal at the camp where these tuskers are confined when in musth. So he was chained by his injured legs to a tree until a more sturdy kraal was built.
• A month later, according to India Project for Animals and Nature (IPAN) veterinary and animal care staff, his physical condition was seriously deteriorated from malnutrition, which prevented wound healing and encouraged the spread of infection.
• A Forest Department staffer (who was subsequently transferred) appealed to locally-based India Project for Animals and Nature (IPAN), directed by Deanna Krantz, to extend help, but were refused access to the makhna by the veterinarian in charge.
• IPAN Director Deanna Krantz then went to see the Wildlife Warden who conceded to IPAN’s involvement with the treatment and feeding of the elephant.
• For four months IPAN collaborated with the Forest Department to provide proper feed and medicines and advised on current wound treatment. The Department had insufficient diesel allotted and no reliable transportation to collect fodder daily directly from local farmers. Urgently needed antibiotics had not been secured because of administrative holdups, the supplying pharmacy not having been reimbursed for the first bill.
• Improper treatment with concentrated disinfectants and antibiotic powders of the annular wounds on all four legs caused by shackling resulted in massive infection and tissue necrosis four to six inches deep. The tendon on the left foreleg became separated from connecting tissues and bowed out. Instead of applying a pressure bandage, the tendon was severed by the attendant veterinarian, leaving an infection-tracking stump.
• The veterinarian did not have proper needles to administer antibiotic injections, the short needles causing abscesses at several injection sites where the drug went under the skin and was not absorbed and therefore of no use in fighting infection. The skin was never cleaned with alchohol prior to infections being given.
• Abscesses caused by goring by the kumkis were cut open and the internal capsule broken with non-sterile probes. This resulted in tracking of pus under the skin and the development of more abscesses, especially on the left shoulder and upper leg.
• IPAN advised provision of sand for the kraal floor, made of narrow logs that made an extremely uncomfortable surface for the crippled elephant to stand on. Constantly wet, the elephant’s feet became infected, infested with maggots, and toenails on one hind foot rotted off.
• IPAN’s involvement in the veterinary care and proper nutrition of the makhna for four months included flying in a veterinary surgery professor, Dr. Jim Mahoney, from the U.S., who worked on the elephant’s leg injuries and abscesses, and prescribed broad spectrum antibiotic injections. During his three weeks of diligent wound treatment the makhna improved dramatically
• During his stay, Dr.Mahoney witnessed a 45-minute session of cane-whipping by two mahouts. IPAN Field Manager Nigel Otter recorded the cries of pain the elephant made as he was beaten on his wounds to make him lie down. This is still standard practice to break/train elephants. But this standard surely cannot be applied to an elephant with such injuries and who, because he is so crippled, cannot lie down. One experienced mahout confided that this elephant was too old to be trained anyway, since the beatings made him more fearful and aggressive rather than submissive.
• As soon as Dr. Mahoney left, Dr. Krishnamurthy, the chief veterinarian, stopped the course of antibiotic therapy and opened up and re-infected the abscesses that had almost healed. Improper treatment of the leg wounds was resumed, and the feet were left unattended. Replacement of sand in the kraal was discontinued.
• Soon after, on December 25, 1998, the Wildlife Warden, Mr. Udaiam, informed IPAN Director Deanna Krantz that her services were no longer required.
• The elephant was next seen and fed by IPAN staff without official sanction, over a month later. He was found to be seriously malnourished and his various wounds and feet were in worse condition than when Dr. Mahoney left. The wounds on his lower legs had been covered with boric acid powder. This is no more than a cosmetic cover-up and was clearly interfering with the wound healing process.
• The makhna was clearly suffering psychologically as well as physically. He was in a state of learned helplessness and terror. The jangling of a chain, the crack of a whipping cane, and the shouts of trainers made him urinate uncontrollably and become extremely agitated. It was obvious that so long as he remained at the elephant camp he would be in a chronic state of anxiety.
• As of February 1, 1999, this elephant had been standing and unable to walk or have any exercise, confined to a 16" x 16" kraal for over six months. Combined with the beating, the prior capture-injuries, and inadequate nutrition, the incarceration of this creature is surely one of the worst instances of animal cruelty ever documented.

In view of the above facts, which evidence clear violation of India’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, and because this particular elephant has already suffered so much, he must be saved from further suffering that his "training" to carry tourists on his back will certainly cause.

IPAN, along with local concerned citizens, Indian animal welfare and veterinary experts, and a growing international network of NGO’s and informed individuals appealed to the appropriate authorities to save the makhna from further suffering. It was evident that he should also be freed from official obfuscation of the severity of his tragic ordeal, and from the administrative limbo that can result when no one assumes full responsibility for his ultimate well-being.

Loki is no ordinary elephant because he has suffered so much. He is a special case, and the four collaborative initiatives articulated below were supported by local, national, and international experts and concerned humanitarians. These collaborative initiatives were simple and could have been quickly expedited:

• IPAN involvement in all aspects of Loki’s feeding, veterinary treatment, and general care.
• Enlargement of Loki’s kraal to permit freedom of movement.
• No more beating and chaining to break his spirit and to make him "tame".
• Transfer at the earliest to a sanctuary away from the elephant camp where if he were to remain, he would live in perpetual terror and be constantly reminded of the tragic ordeal of being taken from the wild.

But the State Minister of Forests did not even reply to Ms. Krantz’s letter expressing these collective concerns and collaborative initiatives. The status quo of elephant cruelty and suffering was to remain unchanged.

• On January 31, 1999, a bus-load of schoolchildren and several concerned adults held a quiet demonstration in front of Loki’s kraal. Several members of the press and TV were also present, independent of IPAN’s involvement. Forest officials brought in local police, manhandled one reporter, and threatened to make arrests. A bogus case against Deanna Krantz was filed with the police by the Forest Department for disturbing law and order and for agitating a riotous mob. Forest guards, several of whom were drunk and asleep at the time of the children’s peaceful Sunday afternoon protest, subsequently demanded police protection. By also falsely accusing IPAN’s Director Deanna Krantz of making a media spectacle out of Loki for her own personal publicity, the Tamil Nadu Forest Department is using her as a scapegoat to deflect rising public censure over their incompetence and lack of public accountability.

• Several local and national newspapers, magazines, and television networks covered Loki’s saga. Loki’s message is one of bureaucratic bungling and cover-up, from the time of capture to the grossly unprofessional veterinary care, lack of nutrition, and cruel beating at one of India’s purportedly "best" Elephant Camps. That world-renowned elephant expert veterinarian Dr. Krishnamurthy was in charge of all treatments and general care casts doubt on his reputation and competence, if not also on India’s ability to protect the dwindling wild elephant population and to properly care for those in captivity.

• Elephant expert Ian Redmond from the U.K.’s Born Free Foundation met with Dr. Krishnamurthy and other local officials at IPAN’s behest in early February, 1999. Dr. Krishnamurthy told him that IPAN staff could resume feeding the makhna, which, the day after Ian returned to the U.K., he prohibited. He also told Ian that when released, the makhna would be on a long drag chain, free to browse in the surrounding jungle, which was also untrue. When released on February 6, 1999, Loki was chained by one front leg and one hind leg between two trees, with less freedom of movement than when he was in the 16" x 16" kraal. Furthermore, there was no forage in the jungle around the Elephant Camp for Loki to eat because it had been overgrazed and fodder trees decimated by the resident population of some 27 chronically malnourished elephants.

• Dr. Krishnamurthy told the press that IPAN, being a Western organization, did not understand the 200-year old traditional practice of training elephants, that included beating them into submission. Earlier, both he and the Wildlife Warden Udaiam denied that Loki had ever been beaten. When asked by Ian Redmond why Loki looked so thin and malnourished, he was curtly told by Udaiam that "elephants always lose weight during the dry season".

• When I inspected Loki a few days before his release from the kraal in chains, I found an emaciated, dispirited creature being fed 1-2 kgs. of edible ficus twig-bark and banyan leaves. Along with the other elephants at the Camp he was also fed cooked balls of ragi (a kind of millet) that one Forest Deaprtment staffer informed us was of poor quality and to which soil and sand was routinely added by corrupt suppliers. The wounds on his legs had not fully healed. Two gaping holes where he had been gored on one side had not yet healed and were exuding sero-sanginous pus. He became extremely agitated and urinated in fear when a mahout came by and when he heard a chain rattle.

• When Loki was removed from the kraal and chained to trees close to the river at the edge of the Elephant Camp, making him visible from the road, the Forest Department placed guards to stop anyone from photographing the makhna. During the previous month and after the media expose, no visitors or cameras had been permitted near Loki in the kraal.

• Such cover-up triggered by adverse publicity is understandable, considering the deplorable lack of adequate nutrition for the Elephant Camp’s 27 resident pachyderms. Males remain chained to trees for up to 13 hours a day. Females are allowed to roam free on drag-chains so that they might mate with wild bulls. The resident bulls, for obvious reasons, have no libido. Due to over grazing, there is little natural forage left at the camp for these animals, so fodder-trees in the surrounding Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary are being hacked and denuded. This Elephant Camp should be closed and the elephants relocated. Until recently the camp conducted an elephant circus for visiting eco-tourists.

• According to two mahouts interviewed on February 16, 1999, who contend that Loki is too old to ever be trained and will probably die soon from stress and starvation, he is now being regularly beaten and kept chained to two trees at night. During the day he is taken into the forest on a heavy drag-chain on his one good hind leg. He is then allowed to graze after his two front legs have been chained together. But now it is the dry season, there is little to eat, and his leg wounds are beginning to open up and fester again.

• There are many reasons to cover up gross incompetence and animal cruelty. The Elephant Camp and Dr. Krishnamurthy are linked with commercial interests involved in captive breeding and circus exploitation of elephants; and with an earlier grant of some $150,000 from the U.S. Smithsonian Institution to set up an elephant stud book for captive elephant breeding in the Indian subcontinent. There are also close linkages with the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and considerably more funding from the U.S. government (USAID and the affiliated IUCN) to research elephant ecology and to put radio collars on crop-raiding elephants to find out why they are raiding crops, according to one Indian field biologist from the Institute. It is patently obvious why they become crop-raiders – because their jungle habitat has been encroached and denuded of vegetation. Such science-based research and management, and the attendant risks of putting radio-collars on wild elephants, side-steps the politics of elephant conservation and extinction.

• This scientific research and management approach to elephant conservation, with the U.S. and other GO’s and NGO’s providing funds for wild elephants to wear radio collars around their necks, is of very questionable value and puts wild elephants’ lives at risk. Using radios to track and monitor crop raiding elephants may conserve jobs and institutions, but so long as the politics and socio-economics of elephants’ habitat destruction and related people/elephant conflicts are not addressed, it will simply mean elephant research and management into extinction.

• U.S. taxpayers, via H.R. 1787, the Asian Elephant Conservation Act of 1997, could soon be contributing some $500,000 per annum, once funds are approved, under the aegis of the Interior Department’s Fish and Wildlife Service, to fund these kinds of poorly monitored activities in India that do more harm than good to protect this endangered species.

• The story of Loki, the messenger, cannot be covered up. His story connects with others: falsification of autopsy reports by bribed state veterinarians paid to cover up elephants electrocuted by high-power wires around rich landowner’s fields; elephants being shot with homemade guns by villagers who have encroached into the last of the wild; hungry elephants raiding crops whose territory has been invaded by tea and coffee plantations and their "corridors" blocked by agricultural expansion and innumerable guest lodges; elephants and other wildlife dying from diseases contracted from infected livestock because state veterinary services to vaccinate and otherwise improve the health of domestic animals are virtually non-existent; poaching by ivory hunters who can easily outgun and outrun Forest guards who have no diesel, vehicles, or radios to patrol and protect the elephants’ dwindling domain, and who are often bribed at check-posts.

IPAN has fully documented these problems that threaten the largest remaining wild elephant population in India. First-hand reports of elephants being captured to have radio collars fitted for "research and management" studies and being killed in the process have also been obtained by IPAN.

The plight of Loki and of his kin in the wild is also linked with the demise of local tribals such as the Kurumbas, Irulas, and Todas. IPAN works closely with these indigenous peoples, and in the process of treating their domestic animals, has first-hand knowledge about those individuals and government agencies that make up the " who and what and why" that are endangering all that is left of the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary.

Elephants are not only sacred to most Indians as the living embodiment of divinity – Ganesh. Elephants are held in awe and reverence by millions of people around the world. They are also the "flagship" indicator-species of ecosystem health and effective conservation programs. The elephants of India and of other Asian and African countries are in sacred trust for the entire Earth community and for generations to come. That trust and the very spirit of Ganesh would have been affirmed to the world if the authorities responsible for Loki’s fate had conceded to the above cooperative and conciliatory initiatives.

POSTSCRIPT

During my investigations I had a chance meeting in February 1999 with an Indian Institute of Science (IIS) researcher, with whom I had enjoyed cordial relations before. His arrogance, and insistence that the death of an elephant while being fitted with a radio collar was contrary to our eye-witnesses’ testimony was an unexpected change of character. The "official report", this scientist insisted, was accidental death because the elephant fell on a tree stump. Her orphaned baby, he assured me, was two years old, and would be taken in by the herd. "Why risk elephants’ lives putting radio-collars on them?" I asked. "To study why they raid crops", he replied. "Why do they raid crops?" I pressed. "Because they are hungry", he answered. "Why are they hungry?" I retorted. He stared at me and then walked away.

Our eye-witness, on the IIS team, that this former wild-dog researcher was supervising, told us that the baby would probably die since she was actually about 2 months old. The team accidentally darted the wrong animal, a nursing mother, decided to put a radio collar on her anyway, but finding it too loose, and fearing the drug was wearing off, gave her a second injection so they could tighten the collar. She died from drug overdose. Dr. Krishnamurthy was the veterinarian in charge.