Press Release: March 22, 1999

More Information About IPAN Animal Refuge Veterinary Services Education Animal Conditions Project Reports "Loki" the Indian Elephant and related issues How you can help

Response from India’s Chief Elephant Researcher

What is at issue is quite simple – freedom from a life in chains and sanctuary for an elephant, even one who, as Prof. Raman Sukumar of the Indian Institute of Science (IIS) emphasizes in italics in his March 12th letter to Congressman Sam Farr, “was not only a habitual crop-raider but has also killed at least a dozen villagers.” He states that, “Dr. Fox, the IPAN Consultant, while mentioning the elephant was a crop-raider, conveniently leaves out the fact that this elephant has been a human killer for several years, an example of the half-truth in the IPAN report.”

Evidently, the fact that Loki has killed people, some of whom shot him with home-made guns, seems to mitigate his suffering and justify breaking his spirit by starving and beating to reform the “rogue” and make him “tame”. According to Prof. Sukumar, “For nearly 2 decades the Indian authorities have been experimenting, with reasonable success, the capturing and taming of such “rogue” elephants, as opposed to killing them.”

“Killing Loki”, says Deanna Krantz, Director of IPAN, “might have been better than subjecting him to the 7 months of torment to “tame” him, especially considering the extent of his injuries from a totally botched capture and subsequent lack of proper veterinary care. IPAN saved his life so we feel responsible for his fate.”

Prof. Sukumar is Honorary Director, Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre and Chairman of the World Wildlife Fund-affiliated IUCN/SCC Asian Elephant Specialist Group. “That he should state,” says veterinarian and ethologist Dr. Michael W. Fox, “the elephant was injured badly in its legs due to its own struggle, and then to insist that after all, he’s killed people, does not enhance the credibility of those associated with the IUCN in the eyes of those concerned with elephant protection and conservation.”

“To blame the elephant for the horrendous and near-fatal injuries he (not it) received while being captured and force-marched in chains (because the old ropes they had were rotten),” Dr. Fox observes, “would seem to reflect a callous lack of empathy, ignorance of the most basic understanding of animal behavior, and a conceptually limited grasp of causality.” In this same letter, Prof. Sukumar dismisses IPAN’s concern about Loki being starved, which weakened his immune system and delayed his healing, stating, “Some weight loss is not necessarily bad; it would have also reduced the load on his injured legs.”

These evident limitations and obfuscations aside, IPAN would welcome the opportunity to collaborate with Prof. Sukumar and the IUCN Asian Elephant Protection Group to improve elephant conservation efforts in the Nilgiris. To date, some extremely important components of elephant conservation, for which IPAN has already secured strong community support, have yet to be addressed by the Forest Department and others purportedly involved in elephant conservation rather than in field research, capture, and “training”.

The issue of the fate of the makhna “Loki” at the Teppakadu Elephant Camp has become a highly personalized and internationalized controversy, leaving his future uncertain.

It need not have become an international issue if responsible Indian officials had agreed to meet with concerned individuals to discuss the welfare and fate of Loki. These included world-renowned elephant expert Ian Redmond from the U.K. and animal behavior and welfare expert Dr. Michael W. Fox, IPAN’s Consultant Veterinarian from the U.S.. It need not have become a highly personalized issue, either. This began when responsible officials deflected legitimate concerns over the treatment of the elephant by making statements to the press that painted Deanna Krantz as an interfering foreigner who was just seeking publicity, spreading misinformation, and had no appreciation of a 200-year old tradition of training elephants.

It was only then, in order to dispel the charges of spreading misinformation, that video and photo documentation to support the legitimacy of Ms. Krantz’s concerns were made public, along with reports from Redmond, Fox, and veterinarian Prof. Jim Mahoney, who came from the U.S. to give expert care to Loki’s wounds, and who also witnessed a 45-minute beating session by mahouts on Loki’s wounds.

Now various Indian officials, including Prof. Sukumar, have launched a counter-offensive, defending the reputations of those involved in Loki’s suffering, all of which serves to deflect attention from the central issue that they continue to avoid – namely, the fate of the makhna. Prof. Sukumar goes on at great length to defend the veterinarian in charge, Dr. Krishnamurthy, because it is Dr. Krishnamurthy who is on his wild elephant capture and radio-collaring research team studying why elephants raid crops. That Dr. Krishnamurthy did not even have any needles to properly inject antibiotics into Loki until IPAN became involved, gave the order to mahouts to begin beating to “train” him, and released the elephant prematurely from 7 months confinement in a 16” x 16” log crate, with chains around his unhealed legs, are some of the many documented concerns that warrant a full investigation of the treatment of both wild and captive elephants in the Nilgiris.

So IPAN makes this appeal: What has happened to Loki is in the past. Let us look to the future and collaborate. The makhna cannot be released into the wild. He should not and need not be euthanized. For humane and ethical reasons he should not spend the rest of his life in chains at the Elephant Camp. So let us work together and with many others around the world, who support our appeal to let him live out his life in a sanctuary enclosure, ideally under the care of IPAN Field Director Nigel Otter, with whom, as the other mahouts will attest, Loki has bonded closely.

Your letters to the Indian authorities have really made a difference! Please keep faxing and emailing polite letters of protest to the following people. Request that the Indian authorities in charge of Loki collaborate with IPAN and other concerned parties to place Loki in a sanctuary away from the Teppakadu Elephant Camp where he was starved and beaten for 7 months in a 16” x 16” log crate!

Prof. Raman Sukumar
Hon. Director, Asian Elephant Research and Conservation Centre
Chairman, IUCN/SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group
Fax: 011-91-80-331-1280 or 011-91-80-331-5428
Email: rsuku@ces.iisc.ernet.in

Mr. Naresh Chandra
Indian Ambassador to the U.S.
Fax: 202-483-3972
(Or the Indian Ambassador in your own country)

Mr. Richard Celeste
U.S. Ambassador to India
Fax: 011-91-11-419-0017

Mr. Suresh Prabhu
Minister of Environment and Forests
Fax: 011-91-11-436-0678 or 011-91-11-436-0721

Mr. Pongalur Palaniswamy
Tamil Nadu Forest Minister
Fax: 011-91-44-585-461

Mr. Vivek Menon
Venu Menon Animal Allies Foundation
Email: indianwildlife@vsnl.com