International Conference on Asian Elephants in Culture & Nature
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Item Attendance, Composition and Health Status of Captive Elephants (Elephas maximus) at the Annual Sonpur Livestock Fair, Bihar, India(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Ashraf, N.V.K.; Anavangote, A.R.; Talukdar, A; Choudhury, B.; Menon, V.; Maheshwary, R.; Narayanan, A.Attendance, husbandry practices and demographics of elephants attending Sonpur Mela, the largest livestock fair in Asia, is compiled and compared based on the 15 years of data collected from 2001-15. At each health camp organized by Wildlife Trust of India, elephants were assessed for clinical parameters like general body condition, vision impairment, and presence of wounds especially on the foot. Non-clinical parameters recorded included husbandry practices, mode of acquisition of elephants, state of origin, ownership details, distance travelled to the Mela and their previous visitation to the fair. The health camp team recorded 806 cases, with many of these being repeated cases as elephants often attend more than one fair. The sex ratio of male and female elephants was near equal (51:49), with about 77% of the males being tuskers. A sizeable proportion of the elephants (18%) were calves, suggesting that not all of them could be considered born to captive males. Majority of the elephants attending the Mela traveled from nearby districts of Bihar (200 to 400 km), followed by Uttar Pradesh (500 to 1000 km). Almost 43% of the cases showed evidences of improper foot care (over grown toenails, cracks, worn out footpads). Unilateral or bilateral corneal opacity was not uncommon, occurring in 14% of elephants. The condition of elephants that come to Sonpur Mela is a good reflection of the health status of captive elephants in the country. Annual attendance at Sonpur has been on the decline from 92 in 2001 to only 14 in 2015. This decline of around 84% in 14 years is attributed to: 1) Restrictions on elephant keeping without ownership certificate; 2) Complete ban on elephant trade since 2002; and 3) Non issuance of interstate transit permits by Forest Departments. If the current rate of decline in attendance is an evidence to go by, there may not be any elephants at Sonpur Fair by 2020.Item Spatio-Temporal Pattern, Displacement Reasons, and Outcome of Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus) Emergencies Attended in Assam, India(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Choudhary, B.; Talukdar, A.; Barman, R.; Bhawal, A.; Boro, P.K.; Basumatary, P.; Ashraf, N.V.K.; Narayanan, A.; Menon, V.Only limited information is available on the factors associated with the displacement and outcome of Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) emergencies attended in India. This study aims to enumerate the reasons for intervention, spatio-temporal pattern and the outcome of these so called ‘rescue’ cases attended in the state of Assam, India. Data of wild elephant cases handled since 2000 by the Center of Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) in Central Assam (CA) and its four satellite units (in Karbi Anglong-KA, Western Assam-WA, North Bank-NB and Eastern-EA) was collected and analyzed. The causes of displacements were categorized as 1) Human induced (conflict, caught, injuries, etc.), 2) Natural (diseases, floods, falls, injuries, etc.) and 3) Unknown (found alone, unknown injuries, etc.). In 15 years from 2000 to 2015, 134 calves and 87 adults were handled (n=221), with the number of elephant emergencies attended increasing every year. The number of displacements due to human induced causes (46.60%), unknown reasons (34.38%) and natural causes (19%) was significantly different. Most of the 57.01% cases that died during intervention or care were calves, while the rest 30.76% was released. Mortality among apparently healthy calves was primarily due to milk-formula intolerance, trauma of separation, infectious diseases (like EEHV, Salmonellosis & enteritis of unknown origin) and on rare occasions aspiration pneumonia. Spatially, CA accounted for 74.66% of the cases, followed by KA 8.59%. EA and WA accounted for only about 6.7% each, while 2.16% cases came from NB. Among croplands, tea estates accounted for the most number of elephant displacements. Falling into tea garden trenches and injury caused by humans (spikes/gun-shots) were the two single-most anthropogenic causes for the displacement of calves and adults respectively. Reuniting the separated calf with the natal herd is an important measure to be taken to ensure immediate return to the wild, but its success rate was only one in every 10 calves intervened. With the Karbi Anglong landscape in the Kaziranga-Karbi Anglong Elephant Reserve getting altered and fragmented due various developmental activities including tea plantations, the number of elephant related emergencies in Assam is only bound to increase in future.Item Beyond gaja and yānai: Etymological Significance of Asian Elephant Names used in Sanskrit and Tamil Literature(Centre for Asian Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Ashraf, N.V.K.No animal has appealed to the human psyche as much as the Asian elephant in Indian culture, religion, mythology, folklore and more importantly in written literature spanning over 3,000 years. Mammoth and yet tamable, gentle and yet unpredictable, terrestrial and yet aquatic, quadrupedal and yet ‘hands-free’, the elephant is indeed a fascinating animal with an alien appearance. If there is one animal that can be named diversely by virtue of its oddities, it is the elephant, and elephant alone. Languages, especially classical ones of great antiquity and literary diversity, invariably have more than one word to mean an animal. Greater a language’s antiquity and literary diversity, the higher seem to be the number of words employed to mean an animal, and also the multiple meanings the very names can convey. I looked at the etymological basis for different names used for the elephant in Sanskrit and Tamil, the first two languages to get the distinction of being called classical by the government India. Apart from the two commonly employed words for the elephant in Sanskrit and Tamil, namely gaja and yānai, there are over 140 and 110 different names for the elephant used in literatures of these respective languages. We see that the elephant’s enormous strength, mammoth body size, anatomical peculiarities, behavioural features, grace and beauty, feeding habits and even physiological adaptations have formed the basis for coining these various names. The objective of this paper is to not only see how these names have been coined, but also see how and when newer names appeared, and when the usage of certain names diminished through literary history.