THE SAGA OF LOKI THE INDIAN ELEPHANT -- ADDENDUM
December 30, 1999

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Government officials have contended that because IPAN staff has not been allowed to visit the Theppakadu elephant camp for several months, anything they say about Loki is a fabrication. But some of IPAN's all-Indian staff are relatives or close friends of some Forest Department staff and of villagers to whom some of the Forest Department employees share their concerns and grievances. This nexus provides IPAN's Director Deanna Krantz with almost daily reports on Loki's treatment and condition, as well as how the other close to thirty elephants are doing at the elephant camp in the Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary. This is the range of India's largest remaining wild elephant population. IPAN also has much in-field knowledge about the plight of wild elephants in this unique bioregion, because of similar IPAN staff connections with forest-dwelling relatives and friends.

The latest series of reports for December 1999 about the elephant camp are the following: Bairavi, an eight-year-old elephant, born in the camp, died after showing for several days severe abdominal pain. Autopsy revealed a large population of tapeworms in the elephant's extensively ulcerated and infected intestines. Nigel Otter, IPAN's Field Director, filmed a large bucket being filled to the brim during the autopsy with these common endoparasites, which a routine fecal exam would have identified and the elephant could have been cured.

The new Mudamalai Wildlife Warden, Dr. Paulraj, who is not a veterinarian, has told Dr. Ashoken, who is a veterinarian and an employee at the elephant camp that tapeworms are normal in elephants and don't cause malnutrition, so no treatment is indicated. Several elephants in poor condition have been removed to the remote Game Hut elephant camp deep in the forest. Loki was to have gone, but the authorities decided otherwise. Loki is being fed more than the other elephants, so he appears to be in better condition than many of the others, especially the kumkhis (trained tuskers).

A group of kumkhis recently came back in trucks exhausted and emaciated after two weeks in the field where they were used in the capture of a rogue tusker. This tusker is now in a kraal like Loki's. He is being regularly beaten and starved. One tusk has been broken in his escape attempts, ramming the kraal, the tusk root is likely to become infected. He has been rendered relatively helpless, like Loki was, by having his trunk beaten. Loki's was also hacked with a machete. With an injured trunk he is unable to feed and fend for himself. So he submits to being hand-fed, becoming dependent upon his tormentors as the combination of physical and psychological abuse sets in a condition of learned helplessness. He will be publicized by the authorities as a reformed killer, a rehabilitated rogue, obedient as a puppy. He may eventually be trained to accept eco-tourists riding on his back. Some Forest Department staff still talk about Subramanian, the trained prime tusker of Theppakadu, who killed his trainer a few years ago. For punishment, he was chained to a tree by the roadside for thousands to see him deliberately starved for three months. He slowly became a living skeleton of hide and bone. Then he was returned to the camp.

Dr. Ashoken, whose services for the elephant at Theppakadu,are rarely called for and who was involved with IPAN in the treatment and care of Loki, reports that nonqualified Forest Department staff are treating sick and injured elephants themselves without supervision and appropriate medicines are not provided. He is on record stating Without IPAN's help, the makhna would have died. The Forest Dept. has yet to reimburse IPAN for costly medicines and diesel fuel since we picked up feed for Loki for four months.

Dr. Ashoken reported to officials around December 13, 1999, that flood rice poor quality rice that is provided by the government for low-income people who are eligible for ration cards- was being traded illegally and bought for two rupees and sold to the Forest Department for eighteen rupees. Dr. Ashoken informed IPAN that the Forest Department officials responsible for purchasing the ragi (ground millet) form the local mill, load the scales with dirt and small rocks, and even rat feces, that are mixed in with the ragi. So 100 kg of useless and hazardous filler in a 1,000 kg purchase of elephant feed a 10% profit -- is shared between buyer and seller. Other Forest Department staff have informed IPAN that, with the exception of Loki, all the elephants, who receive this adulterated, low-quality diet, are fed only 50 kg on the average per day, instead of the recommended 120-150 kg per day. In early December several elephants developed severe colic problems and diarrhea and became very ill, weakened and depressed, possibly because of their poor diet. The authorities did not call in a veterinarian to tend to the elephants.

The local peoples are well informed about State Forest Department activities, from failed tree afforestation and irrigation projects, to rarely apprehending illegal forest exploiters, poachers, and developers. No prosecutions were made this fall against known individuals who placed a small homemade bomb in a jack-fruit as bait for an elephant who was raiding their crops on newly cultivated land in the elephants' domain. The bomb blew the elephant's mouth apart. An eye witness saw him roaming around two days later, gushing blood and skidding all over between the trees in the most obvious, terrible pain. He should have been euthanized. The government officially responded by posting two forest guards to observe the starving elephant who, after a month, wandered away and became lost in the forest.

According to Dr. Ashoken, only a certified veterinarian is allowed by law to chemically immobilize wild elephants for capture. Yet an unqualified livestock inspector is allowed to do it. Over the past 2 years, of 40 chemically-captured elephants, 75% died from drug overdose. Dr. Ashoken says that of 45 elephant postmortems that he conducted in this same time frame, 25 were bulls, poached for their ivory. He adds that there are no adult bulls left in the Mudumalai, Wyrard and Bindipur Wildlife Sanctuaries. Some 36 sub-adult males have been identified.

Poachers, who have recently killed a small, chained and trained bull elephant for his ivory in this State, have not been apprehended. The illegal trade in Asian elephant ivory continues. But much worse is the growing trade in live Asian elephants. An international consortium, consisting of western zoos and circuses, Indian elephant scientists and wildlife conservationists, is moving to establish an international Asian elephant conservation management program that has the backing of the World Wildlife Fund and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature via the WWF/IUCN Asian Elephant Specialist Group, which is chaired by Dr. Raman Sukumar (see [www.gcci.org. under Loki for correspondence with Dr. Sukumar. See also AZA Communique: American Zoo and Aquarium Association Elephant Planning : An Update on the AZA Elephant Planning Initiative, Aug. 1999, p. 8-9.

The IUCN has long advocated that wildlife must pay its own way. In the case of elephants under the conservation management program, India will be paid to conserve elephants in the wild as a resource, providing elephant offspring to replenish the dwindling number and gene pool of America's captive zoo and circus pachyderms. Otherwise, the American population of elephants will become extinct in 50 years. And in 50 years, all of Loki's wild relatives will likely become extinct in the Nilgiris, unless something is done now.

A conservation management program, using elephant camps like Theppakadu as breeding centers to provide the U.S. with young elephants, who should never be in a zoo or a circus, is ethically questionable. These breeding centers let captive females out on long drag chains at night to breed with wild bulls, since most captive bulls have no libido. A conservation management program could possibly provide sufficient revenue for improved wild elephant conservation. The money purportedly generated to help protect and conserve elephants in the wild by sustainably harvesting and selling offspring is not likely to be used to support programs that address the major reasons for elephant extinction, especially since there is little evidence of local community participation with the authorities involved.

On Dec. 27th, Deanna Krantz, working at IPAN's Hill View Farm Animal Refuge, received a phone call from one Mukund, a reporter in Madras with the Hindu national newspaper. He informed her that Minister Maneka Gandhi was flying down from New Delhi to assess Loki's condition. Mr. Mukund enquired about Nigel Otter. He had heard from a reliable source that Nigel had been attacked, severely injured and hospitalized by Loki.

Such rumor is part of the disinformation campaign being waged against IPAN, as per the letters hereby attached from Maneka Gandhi and Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of the World Society for the Protection of Animals. Deanna Krantz has heard Loki scream when he's given the command "Byte," meaning go down, and is beaten until the pain of the beating is greater than the pain in his crippled legs, and he obeys, twice daily in order to be bathed lying down. This daily abuse of Loki and the other problems detailed by Dr. Ashoken, were not evident when Maneka Gandhi visited the elephant camp, nor were the regular tourist rides on elephant's backs.

On December 30th, Ms. Maneka Gandhi (Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment) and an entourage of officials including Dr. Sukumar, the Collector, the Superintendent of Police, the Principle Chief Conservator of Forests, the Chief Wildlife Warden of Tamil Nadu, former and present Mudamulai Wildlife Wardens, the Revenue Division Officer, the Treasurer of the Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association (NWEA) met at the elephant camp. IPAN was not contacted. Maneka Gandhi left the elephant camp after two hours and Dr. Ashoken was not allowed to speak to the press.

Ms. Gandhi told the press that she is very happy with the elephant's health. She said that there was "a conspiracy by vested interests of foreign nationals to tarnish the image of the Mudamalai Wildlife Sanctuary, which is the best in the country...to make a fast buck in the name of protecting Indian animals." (The New India Express/Coimbatore, December 31st 1999.)

Maneka Gandhi did not visit IPAN's Animal Refuge or the neighboring Nilgiris Animal Welfare Society's 52 acre animal refuge, where, because of her past involvement at the request of IPAN to take appropriate action, resident animals have continued to suffer abuse and neglect over the past two years. Nor did she confer with the local Panchayet (elected community leaders), or tribal elders, who support IPAN, and know what is happening to the elephants and other wildlife in the area.

Ms. Gandhi is quoted by Merritt Clifton in "Animal People" as saying she took steps to have Loki given over to Deanna Krantz only to be told that the lady had left India (see Animal People July/August 99: See also Animal People, September 99; November 99: June 98: and January/February 98 for evidence of disinformation about IPAN and Loki). It is also on record that Ms. Gandhi informed some Indians (who support IPAN) at a conference in London, that Deanna Krantz, who, like all non-Indian staff, receives no salary, is pocketing $150,000 a year.

Thanks to a November 9th, 1999 letter by one Union Minister, Shatrughan Sinha, to T. R. Balu, Union Minister of Environment and Forests, requesting Deanna Krantz and IPAN's involvement in the case of Loki, Maneka Gandhi has come to investigate, without meeting with Deanna or IPAN staff. Whatever Deanna has said about Loki's condition has been based on expert opinion of elephant welfare and veterinary specialists she has brought in: Ed Stewart of PAWS, USA, Dr. Ian Redmond with the Born Free Foundation, U.K., and veterinarian Dr. James Mahoney (see our web site for their statements on Loki).

A.C. Soundarrajan, President of the Niligiri Wildlife and Environment Association, has told the media to ignore complaints by foreign citizens. It is rumored that Loki may be moved to receive better care under the Kerala or Karnataka State Forest Dept., which Dr. Krishnamurthi opposes, claiming Theppakadu is India's best elephant camp.

Reporter R. Haldorai, with The New India Express (December 30th), has falsely reported that Deanna has only been in India for ten days, has been denied an extension on her visa and has 6 days grace-time to leave the country, and writes that Loki: is wandering the forest freely.

It is of no benefit to IPAN's programs and goals in the Nilgiris to be the conduit for the necessary and long overdue public expose of the above problems and concerns. The authorities, for reasons best known to themselves, have denied the veracity of IPAN's documented concerns. Some have conspired to orchestrate a worldwide disinformation campaign, joined by certain Indian NGOs, purportedly dedicated to animal welfare, protection, and conservation, including at least one member of the Indian Parliament. IPAN came to India only to help alleviate animal suffering. This quest has become politicized, which means that the status quo of animal welfare and conservation will remain unchanged if IPAN is not given public support in India, and from around the world.

In a letter released on the Internet on April 7th, 1999, Maneka Gandhi refuted IPAN's concerns about Loki with false information provided by the Forest Department ending the letter stating: Finally I would like to warn against international organizations like IPAN who, though they mean well, have not been able to help animals here mainly because of their operating style. It was the officials of the wildlife sanctuary where the elephant was taken, that itself approached IPAN, for help in his treatment. That this assistance was refused at a later stage is, I suspect from previous experience, largely due to IPAN's inability to work with local people towards the common goal of animal welfare, as well as its eagerness to turn every animal tragedy into a fund-raising and self-promotion opportunity. We do not market misery in India and do not appreciate those that would do so.

More reports:

• December, 1999 Update
• Letter from Maneka Ghandi