Attachment to IPAN's response to Professor Raman Sukumar (6/16/99)

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

DR. JACOB V. CHEERAN
135, Nehru Nagar
Trichur – 680 006
Kerala, INDIA
Tel: 011-91-0487-20547
Fax: 011-91-0487-21508

Dear Christine Krishnasami,

I am in receipt of your letter and thanks a lot. I do not know the programme you were viewing on 12^th Oct. The most cruel treatment is meted out to the elephant when the mahout change and a new mahout is taken over. Instead of taking, tact, intelligence and behavioural physiology they take to most cruel methods. But they are occasional. To educate the mahouts, in this regard we started a training programme for the mahouts. This will teach them that an intelligent animal has to be handled intelligently. This will avoid inflicting injury to the animals.

Even to conduct this programme we had to get money from overseas, the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare based on a paper, I presented at England in a seminar on exploitation of Mammals. This paper has been published as a book under the title "The Exploitation of Mammal population"

Now in Kerala, elephants are kept as an economic proposition and mahouts change frequently, and this leads to this problem.

Recently, Mrs. Maneka Gandhi spoke at Bangalore that in Kerala everyday an elephant is being tortured to death. This is far from the truth.

We have formed an organization under the name and style . Elephant Welfare association under which welfare activities for the elephants and mahouts are conducted. The mahouts training program is organized by the elephant welfare Association and the funds were routed through Ms. Sally Walker of Zoo outreach organization, Coimbatore.

The most pitiable aspect is that law in connection with the cruelty to the animals is very vague and lenient.

Thanking you,

Yours sincerely,

DR. JACOB V CHEERAN