An unexpected guest of police

By P.Oppili

CHENNAI, MAY 11. A 36- year old female elephant was an unexpected guest of the Thiruvanmiyur Police on Friday after animal rights activists charged its mahout with cruelty and compelled him to leave it in protective custody.

Jyothi was taken to the police station by the activists of the Bharathiya Prani Mithra Sangh around 3 pm., but there was little progress in the case as wildlife officials declined to take custody of it. The animal was still there late in the night.

The elephant was spotted by the activists near the Thiruvanmiyur market, when they had just concluded a meeting of the Animal Welfare Board of India. It was being forced to beg on the roads, they said. Using elephants for begging is common in Chennai in crowded residential areas.

Ms. Gouhar Azeez, the secretary of the Sangh, said the animal had welts in its rear and legs, indicating that it was not well- looked after and perhaps was punished.

The elephant, owned by Mr. Narayanan residing in Manapakkam, was part of a group of three pachyderms.

Passers-by gave the elephant money, and the mahout, Ayyappan said it earned upto Rs. 1,700 a day. The two other animals, belonging to its master, were deployed for begging in Parrys and Koyambedu area, according to the Sangh.

The focus of the activists turned to the state of elephants held under a ``possession certificate'' issued by wildlife authorities. The Asian elephant is dwindling in numbers in the wild, and is thus a species warranting protective steps by the wildlife authorities, they say. One of the grounds cited by the authorities today for their inability to take charge of the animal, was that they did not have a budget allocation to feed it. Moreover, they would have ascertain the position vis-a-vis the possession certificate.

Police said they would release the elephant if its owner presented himself and paid a penalty for creating a nuisance in the public place.

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