The Hindu : Yamuna affecting elephants too

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 02, 2003

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Yamuna affecting elephants too

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI MARCH 1. Elephants here are finding the Yamuna water a bit too uncomfortable for their liking. For the 30-odd elephants living near the Yamuna, the garbage that the city dumps there is proving injurious to their skin with many of them being diagnosed with one skin ailment or the other.

These include parasitism, foot lesions, wounds and abscesses. Many of them were also detected with cracked toe nails and fissures in footpad, which they were carrying around for a long time.

``The city uses the Yamuna almost like a waste ground despite the strong campaign against it and the elephants who use this water every day injure themselves because of the glass pieces in the water and the high level of contamination. Skin ailments are common and many elephants continue their daily routine with the wounds and are forced to bathe in the dirty water. What makes the situation murky is the fact that though their keepers know that the water is bad for the animals, there is no option,'' says Worldlife Trust Of India (WTI) Wild Rescue Programme Co-ordinator N.V.K.Ashraf, whose team has been working with the elephants.

What is also worrying is the long-term effect on these animals. And though no studies have been conducted to assess the effect of the polluted water on them, workers feel that the elephants can't really escape the ill-effect of man's carelessness with his environment.

``Though the pachyderms are given drinking water from a hand-pump and are not allowed to drink from the Yamuna, one can't really keep a strict check. They might be drinking the water when they are being cleaned. The only time the water does get a little better here is during the monsoon,'' says Dr. Ashraf.

``Use of traditional medicines, no proper doctors, zero health check-up, and the reluctance of the keepers to spend money adds to the problems of the elephants here. Often elephants, which have open wounds, are forced back into the dirty water for their bath infecting the wound further,'' says Dr. Ashraf.

``Many of these captive elephants are also poorly managed in spite of being a source of livelihood for the owners,'' he adds. "They are often left exposed with no `pucca' shelter for the animals here and most of them are left tied to the trees under shade.''

To help these animals, WTI is now holding medical check-up camps and also educating the keepers about the importance of using clean water. They also plan to work towards building a shelter for these elephants living here.

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