The zoo elephants are used only as exhibits. Their use for joy rides was discontinued because of criticism by animal welfare activists. There are only 27 zoos in India keeping elephants. Some of the zoos are used as rescue centres for elephants confiscated from individuals for violation of laws, or for the abandoned calves of wild elephants. The Government of India does not encourage the establishment of more zoos without adequate infrastructure. There is, therefore, not much scope to increase the number of zoo elephants. The circus elephants are used to entertain the public. But they do not appear to have a promising future. Circus companies in India are constantly struggling for their economic survival and they have to face tremendous criticism from animal welfare activists for subjecting their animals, including elephants, to unnecessary pain and cruelty. But currently, circuses in India are one of the biggest buyers of elephants and they are continuously on the look out for replacements for their old elephants. Temple elephants, with the exception of one in Punjab, are all in southern India. Although they are used for religious processions, most of the year they remain idle. Most of the temples possess sufficient financial resources to care for their elephants, yet many of them are often criticized for exposing their elephants to stress during processions and for not paying adequate attention to their health and hygiene. There is no indication that the demand for elephants in temples will decrease in the near future. About 75 percent of captive elephants are owned by private individuals. Just three states, viz. Assam with 1 120, Kerala with 586 and Arunachal Pradesh with 550, account for 89 percent of the elephants privately owned. Domesticated cow elephants in northeast India get better opportunities to mate with wild bulls than their counterparts elsewhere. Almost all elephants in the northeast are used for logging operations in private or community forests or for other works in saw mills. The Assam elephants are also used to assist in the capture and training of wild elephants whenever the opportunity arises. With a prohibition on logging imposed by the Supreme Court of India in 1994, job opportunities for the northeastern elephants have decreased and many elephants have since been sold to buyers from Kerala, Bihar and Tamilnadu. But most of the elephants are still being employed in illegal logging operations in the northeast (Barua, personal communication.). The Kerala and Tamilnadu elephants are hired out to temples for religious ceremonies. Some of them are sometimes hired by the coffee planters in Kerala and Karnataka for logging operations. Private elephants in Jaipur (Rajasthan) are used for tourism purposes and they are reported to be very popular with the foreign tourists. In Delhi private elephants are in great demand for marriage processions, social functions and occasionally in political rallies. In Bihar, Jharkhand and eastern parts of Uttar Pradesh many big landlords still keep elephants as a status symbol. Some of these elephants are also used for transporting people and material in remote areas. Many elephants in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab are either owned or hired by mendicants who roam around different parts of the country during the harvesting or festival seasons and make a handsome living through begging. |
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