Begging through jumbos banned in Assam

Elephants owners and mahouts in Assam have been banned from using their animals to seek alms.

Guwahati, Sep 1 : Elephants owners and mahouts in Assam have been banned from using their animals to seek alms.

Consequently, directives have been issued to Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) to detain such elephants and punish the mahouts and owners on charges of misusing the elephants.

The ban also prohibits the use of the pachyderms in street performances as a means to earn money.

"When elephants are made to beg by keeping them in front of the temple or outside the house and other places, it means that the owner is not having sufficient means to maintain the animal. In such situations the owner's license to keep an elephants has to be cancelled," said M C Malakar, Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) of Assam.

Bereft of sources to feed them, the mahout's parade their elephants on the streets and lanes of residential localities and markets. The religious minded people would never let a begging elephant and its mahout return without some food for the elephant and money.

This attitude has encouraged the owners and mahouts to bring the elephants onto the streets again and again as they have no other option.

According to Malakar, there have been numerous complaints about elephants being used in towns and villages as a tool to beg and earn money for the mahouts.

"There are a lot of complains from the people that domestic elephants are brought to town and cities and they are made to work in scorching sun and made to beg by performing tricks, for which again permission from central zoo authority is required, so I have said that begging by performing tricks should also be prohibited," Malakar added.

Ever since the Supreme Court banned the felling of trees in forests by timber contractors, many domesticated elephants, which were employed to haul and load logs of wood, have become 'jobless'.

The owners and mahouts have no other option but to send these elephants out onto streets to earn money from alms as a means to survive.

Reportedly, in Assam's Guwahati and Dispur city, there have been instances of domestic elephants having run amok and even claiming a couple of lives.

It is estimated that there are around 4000 domestic elephants in the state. This is evident when hundreds of domesticated elephants participate in the annual Kaziranga Elephant Festival. The first elephant festival took place in the year 2003.

ANI