Around 32 acres of land procured by elephant owners in Kerala for starting the first superspecialty elephant hospital in the country is up for sale, though the State continues to report a rise in elephant deaths due to various ailments.
There has been a steady decline in the captive elephant population in the State with around 80% of the animals falling prey to ailments such as impaction of colon (locally known as Erandakettu) and foot ailments. The State is now home to only 393 elephants, a steep fall from the 521 recorded in the elephant census in November 2018. Despite this, Kerala, which is famous for its achievements in health-care indicators, has not made any sincere attempts to address elephant ailments.
P.S. Ravindra Nathan, secretary of the Kerala Elephant Owners’ Federation, told The Hindu that he spent around ₹23 lakh in an attempt to save his elephant, Durga Prasad, which was diagnosed with Erandakettu. The elephant died on April 22 after 45 days of treatment. The veterinary doctors could not locate the root of the infection, said Mr. Nathan.
Facilities envisaged
It was with the intention to prevent such occurrences that the federation bought 32 acres at Chittanda in Thrissur in 2014 to set up a superspecialty hospital exclusively for elephants. The facility was to have adequate research and clinical facilities, inpatient wards, rehabilitation units, mahout training centre, and port-mortem and cremation facilities functioning round-the-clock. A plot near a forest was chosen considering the Forest department’s advice. The project was then estimated to cost ₹250 crore. However, it did not receive patronage from the State, Union governments, he said.
Now, the federation has a liability of around ₹4 crore on the land. “There is no point in multiplying the liability when the authorities are not interested in the project,” said Mr. Nathan.
Defective practices
According to experts, it is difficult to give advanced treatment to elephants if there are no facilities for endoscopy, colonoscopy, scanning, and X-rays. “The issue becomes complex when defective elephant management practices, such as providing food and water before cooling the animals down, are practised during the busy festival season,” said Jacob Cheeran, a senior elephant veterinarian.
It is also difficult to implement ethical management practices during the festival season due to practical and economic reasons. Most festivals are held in peak summer and the owners and mahouts lack the knowledge to treat the animals properly in that season, said Dr. Cheeran.
This year, Reliance Industries and Reliance Foundation has launched their Vantara (Star of the Forest), an umbrella initiative to focus on the rescue, treatment, care, and rehabilitation of injured, abused, and threatened animals in India and abroad. But in Kerala, a project conceived 10 years ago is winding up, despite it having the possibility of developing into an initiative with public-private partnership.
