Man being mauled by the rogue elephant
Whole world was shocked to see the way a rogue elephant gored and mauled to death a security man when he was returning from his duty early in the morning recently. Two rogue elephants which were part of a herd of elephants, strayed into the city of Mysore, a cultural center in South India. They created such a rampage and resisted the forest guard almost the whole day from bringing them under control. Even four tranquilizer darts did not affect them. Their fury was out of bound. Apart from killing the security guard, they grievously injured an old lady, a cattle and a calf. They caused damage to vehicles, buildings etc and it was only after they were tranquilized that they were brought under control All these happened in broad day light on the streets of Mysore.
It was interesting to notice how these elephants were made to behave themselves by another set of animals which were brought from the Elephant camp after they were tranquilized and tied by ropes made of cotton thread. Cotton thread is used to avoid any injuries that might cause to the elephant when it tries to free itself from the shackles of the rope. The trained elephants of the forest department took control of the animals and put them in lorries or transport vehicles and transported them to another habitat, of course, to another forest and freed them there.. When the rogue elephants refused to step into the lorries, the tamed animals literally lifted them and pushed them into the lorries. This showed how training can make even ferocious or strong animals to obey the orders of their trainers commands and control their own fellow animals
Elephants are believed to be very intelligent animals like dolphins. But why do they behave erratically sometimes is a matter which requires some study. In the animal world, elephants are the strongest. They are found in India, Africa, Burma. Nepal, Indonesia etc. But among African and Asian elephants, Asian elephants are much smaller, weighing between 6 to 8 tons at a height of about 7 to 12 feet. They live as long as the human beings. Their life span is as long as 80 years. They take about 10 years to reach their adult hood and female elephants give birth to their 1st calf between 10-20 yrs old after 2 ½ years gestation period. They can produce at least 5 to 12 babies before they reach the age of 50 years. These animals are not born with survival instincts, but needs to learn these during infancy and adolescence almost like human beings. The brain is specially designed to accomplish this sort of life learning. Elephants’ capacity for memory and emotions is remarkable and is due to the well-developed hippocampus. The hippocampus is the part of the brain that is involved in memory forming, organizing, and storing. It is a limbic system structure that is particularly important in forming new memories and connecting emotions and senses, such as smell and sound, to memories. This is also the area responsible for emotional flashbacks and that is the reason why the elephants experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is this disorder which prompts the elephants in captivity to behave erratically.
It is pertinent to point out that the elephant is one of the animals which can be tamed and domesticated, and used for peaceful and possibly for other purposes including for warfare as used by Chandra Gupta Maurya a hindu king who ruled some part of Northern India in 350 B.C. It is considered as a symbolic of auspiciousness, strength and intellectual prowess. That is why Aristotle appears to have said about elephants as “the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind.” . Though it is the largest and strongest of animals of the forest, yet it is gentle and is vegetarian, so that it does not kill to eat. It is very affectionate and loyal to it’s keeper and is greatly swayed if love and kindness are extended to it. At the same time it can be ferocious and can destroy anything that comes in it’s way as it did in Mysore. People call lion as the King of Forests but as a matter fact, it is elephant which is the king. Therefore it is called as gajraj or Elephant King.
Elephants do not sweat and they have an inbuilt part in their body to ward off heat generated . The enormous ears of elephants act as cooling devices. On hot days, elephants flap their ears constantly, creating a slight breeze. This breeze cools the surface blood vessels, and then the cooler blood gets circulated to the rest of the animal’s body The ears are also used sometimes to display aggression. If an elephant wants to intimidate a predator or rival, it will spread its ears out wide to make itself look more massive and imposing
Elephant legs are meant for slow movement. It is called as graviportal. Elephant walks on five toes and heel pad. Elephants move long distances– for food, for water, maybe for fun. Elephants don’t run. Typical elephant walk is like brisk human walk. Fastest walk is like top human sprint. The walk of the elephant is many a times compared to the seductive walk of the woman. Such women who walk like elephants are called as “gaja gamini†and poets use that term very frequently. One can see it from the back of a woman and just watch the movement of her hips and the shoulders. In Indian classical dance form it is called Tribhang or the three breaks in ones body. In this part of the world, women like to walk like that. But in the West they walk straight. Perhaps that is why when Pippa Middleton walked behind Kate Middleton as maid of honour during the marriage ceremony of her sister, onlookers were amazed to see the movement of her body from behind. It immediately caught the eyes of the onlookers. She was like “gaja gamini.†It means elephant walk. Further “gaja†always personifies all the positive attributes of an elephant such as abundance, richness, boldness, wisdom, strength and even royalty.
Even the Hindu god Ganesha has the head of an elephant. It symbolizes strength, intellectual prowess and auspiciousness. Ganesha’s large head therefore is symbolic of the wisdom of the elephant. His large ears, like the winnow, sift the bad from the good. Although He hears everything, He retains only that which is good; He is attentive to all requests made by the devotees, be they humble or powerful. He can be swayed by love and affection but is ruthless when containing evil. There is a mythological story behind as to how he got the elephant head and that can be stated at some other time.
With all those excellent attributes, it was really shocking why the elephants lost their cool and created such chaos in Mysore. It is the humans who have to be blamed for the rampage done by them. The people have destroyed their habitat by encroaching into their territories to make room for crop fields. The elephant which killed a human being in Mysore was 8 year old. It is still a calf. It was separated from it’s herd and perhaps it got panicked when it saw human beings shouting and running after it on the streets of Mysore and it had no place to go. It was in the heart of the city with all concrete buildings around it. It was attacking whosoever or whatsoever came in it’s way. It is necessary to point out that out of the two elephants which had separated from the herd. one though entered the city, it while running aimlessly, found itself in an area where there were bushes and forest like area and it went and hid in it. Due to tranquilizer darts which had pierced in it’s body it fell unconscious there only but it did not harm the people.
Therefore the lesson which the people should learn is that when the elephants enter the area where human beings live, they should help them to go back to their habitat without running after them and do not create such panic situation that the elephants should lose their cool and go wild or dangerous. It is the heat generated in it’s body which it cannot cool down due to panic situation, it runs amok. In Mysore, the forest officials, after the elephants were caught poured enormous amount of water through hose pipes used by Fire Tenders on the elephants to cool down the heat generated in their body. That is the reason why water is always dear to elephants as they take pleasure in lying down or playing in the water.
The forest officials should be congratulated for leaving the elephants back into the forest instead of taking them to some elephant sanctuaries or orphanages to tame / domesticate them and ultimately use them for doing the job of a porter.