Press Release: March 19, 1999

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German Tourist Visiting Loki the Indian Elephant Is Assaulted and Interrogated

On March 18th, a young German woman, Iris Begun, who had read some newspaper articles about Loki the Makhna while touring India, decided to go and see the elephant for herself at the Teppakadu Elephant Camp in the Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu. One of the articles quoted Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary Warden Udaiam, saying that “anyone can come and see the makhna”. So she went to see the elephant at the Camp on March 18th, accompanied by Forest Department Guard Babu. She returned the next day from her local guest lodge accommodations to visit the elephant and take some pictures. A note hand-delivered by local guest lodge owners to Deanna Krantz, Director of India Project for Animals and Nature (IPAN), who operates an animal refuge near the Elephant Camp, appealed to Deanna for immediate help later that day.

The lodge owners, along with dozens of tourists visiting the Elephant Camp the afternoon of March 19th, witnessed 4 State Forest Department Guards manhandling Iris, punching her, and throwing her into their jeep. The guards confiscated her video and still cameras, impounded her rented jeep, and held her for several hours. Wildlife Warden Udaiam instructed the staff to “hold her in custody” until he arrived to interrogate her.

That this young woman, an innocent tourist with a love for animals, should be treated like a criminal, is an international outrage. But it is part of a concerted effort to conceal from the world the plight of a wild elephant who was caught by the authorities, severely injured, and subsequently beaten and starved.

According to eye-witnesses, this poor elephant is chained by one leg to a tree, and his many wounds that IPAN helped heal have now opened up and become re-infected.

Iris was able to send a note to Deanna Krantz through her guest lodge friends, pleading for Deanna to come and help while she was being held for interrogation at the Elephant Camp. “They have beaten me up, taken my cameras, and won’t let me go.” Deanna Krantz was contacted by Iris because she was the only other European woman in the vicinity. Deanna, however, could not go in person to intercede on her behalf, because she has been prohibited from going to the Elephant Camp by the State authorities.

This violation of human rights by the Tamil Nadu State Forest Department illustrates what extreme measures are being taken to deflect increasing international concern over the plight of this elephant. That they should now make a human victim of their cover-up to stop the release of more video and photo documentation to the world community of citizens concerned about the rights and welfare of our fellow creatures is unconscionable. Interestingly, Wildlife Warden Udaiam has conducted several recent carefully-orchestrated visits to the Elephant Camp to allow the Indian press to see and photograph the elephant while he was being hand-fed, and after the wounds on his legs had been cosmetically covered with white powder. Furthermore, the State’s Chief Wildlife Warden, R.P.S. Katwal, in his official report of March 5, 1999, to the Tamil Nadu Government, stated, “Anyone is welcome to have a look at the animal and satisfy his concern about its well-being.”

The assault and interrogation of Ms. Begun by the Tamil Nadu State Forest Department employees demonstrates how totally out of control and out of touch with reality this Department has become, taking the law into its own hands and acting as though national security is at risk, by confiscating a tourist’s cameras, physically assaulting her, and arresting her for interrogation.