Press Release: March 12, 1999

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Is There Hope for “Loki” the Indian Elephant? Official Indian Investigation Completed

The Chief Wildlife Warden of Tamil Nadu, Mr. R.P.S. Katwal, has filed an official report that totally distorts the saga of suffering that Loki has experienced. This report was sent to Richard F. Celeste, U.S. Ambassador to India, on March 10th, and was received by IPAN, courtesy of Congressman Sam Farr, on March 11th. Mr. Katwal lauded how the elephant has been trained and complained that "we have been painted as villains". He invites anyone "to have a look at the animals(sic) and satisfy his concern about its well-being" and states that either out of "ignorance" or "sheer vested interests" misinformation has been spread about this elephant.

One of India’s national newspapers, The Hindu, published an excellent article on March 8th by B. Barath Kumar, “Global Plea to Free Confined Elephant”. There has been much media coverage on the “Loki” saga. Many reports, however, have been clearly slanted to protect the Tamil Nadu State Forest Department and discount the concerns of Deanna Krantz, Director of India Project for Animals and Nature (IPAN), a division of Global Communications for Conservation, Inc., New York.

Ms. Krantz is lambasted as a publicity-seeking troublemaker, and put down as a foreigner who doesn’t understand India’s 200-year old tradition of elephant training. The press have been invited to film and feed the chained elephant, but not she or any of her staff. Nor can anyone from IPAN be present with the press, because the authorities only want the press to see a tame, rehabilitated, “rogue” elephant who eats bananas out of their hands, and not to hear anything about his past suffering. “This is a new variation of the Indian Rope Trick”, says Dr. Michael W. Fox, Veterinarian and IPAN Consultant. “What you see is what you believe.”

Loki’s 7 months of suffering cannot be redeemed or atoned for by keeping him in chains at the Mudumalai Elephant Camp for the rest of his life. That will be his fate if his re-opened leg wounds, chronic malnutrition, and depression don’t kill him first. To add such insult to injury is shameless and unacceptable to the civilized world.

What is outrageous is the continuing defensiveness, obfuscation, and denial by the authorities who are resisting collaboration in the name of compassion, with IPAN and a growing legion of supporters worldwide. Most notable is the fact that the responsible authorities are still choosing to ignore the rising voice of the people in their own state and nation. Many Indian citizens, at home and abroad, are sympathetic to Loki’s plight. They identify with him as a victim of authoritarianism and of a dehumanizing, Orwellian bureaucracy and dysfunctional administrative system that seeks to protect and perpetuate itself rather than do what is right.

To protect the last of the wild, to bow with grace and dignity before public opinion - that does not stand in judgement but asks only for compassionate action – is that too difficult? For the State Forest Department to give Loki up should not mean defeat, but victory for hope. If there is no hope for Loki, then what hope is there for the rest of India’s elephants?

Deanna’s tribal workers and friends, the Honey Kurumbas and the Elephant Kurumbas, as well as the Toda tribals, identify with Loki and want to see him liberated from the chains, the depravity, and the indignities of the Mudumalai Elephant Concentration Camp. There are too many elephants at the Camp for the amount of food that the jungle and community can provide and the Forest Department chooses to pay for. Much of this money, according to The Hindu article on Loki, is not used for its intended purpose because there is no adequate supervision by a competent, caring veterinarian or elephant husbandry specialist. The article states, “The “makhna”, like other elephants in the Camp, is malnourished.” A mahout, with tears in his eyes, says that “officials manning the Camp cooly line their pockets with the funds meant to buy the elephants food.”

The elephants at the Mudumalai Elephant Camp are chronically malnourished. Hence the high incidence of infertility and disease. Females are allowed to roam further on drag-chains so that they may mate with wild bulls at night. Males are kept chained for up to 13 hours a day and are then let into the forest on heavy drag-chains to find what food they can. Their handlers don’t want to go far into the forest, so the elephants have little to eat, especially during the dry season (February – May). Instead of providing supplemental food, officials choose to regard the emaciation of the elephants at the Camp during the dry season as part of some natural cycle. The Mudumalai Wildlife Warden, Mr. Udaiam, said so to one of IPAN’s investigatory consultants, elephant expert Ian Redmond, who expressed concern about Loki’s worsening condition in February.

According to eye-witnesses at Loki’s capture and crippling journey in heavy chains to the Mudumalai Elephant Camp in July 1998, even though he was repeatedly tranquilized, the five trained tuskers (kumkis), were so weak that they could not move Loki when he chose to stand and resist. And he knew he had no tusks. But he wanted to be free. Instead, he was terribly gored. Perhaps this explains why, a few weeks after Loki’s capture and incarceration, the Forest Department had the tips of all the tame, Camp elephants’ tusks removed. But the official word on Loki’s wounds was that they were all caused by villagers’ guns.

To see Loki as the victim of inhumanity that turns hope into hopelessness and life into a commodity, is to empathize with the despair and hopelessness of the tribal peoples and all who dwell in Loki’s kingdom and who follow the dharma, the way of peace and harmony. These people identify closely with Loki because they, too, are victims of corruption and injustice. The forces that take away hope and which demean the sanctity of life come from the same source that can liberate Loki. So in the name of humanity, the world appeals to India - Save the Makhna! Free Loki!