Elephant release marks 75th anniversary of Indian independence

Norma Alvares & friends.  (Beth Clifton collage based on photo by Assavri Kulkarni.)

(Adapted,  with some explanatory text added and legal details deleted specific only to India,  from a much longer version by Norma Alvares,  president,  People for Animals,  Goa,  and Alok Hiswarwala Gupta,  Centre for Research on Animal Rights,  published by Herald Goa on August 14,  2022.)

While the people of India prepared to celebrate 75 years of freedom from British rule on August 15, 2022,  an elephant named Janumani on August 11,  2022 gained her freedom from nearly 20 years in captivity.

Her release may have held symbolic importance for Hindus,  Buddhists,  and Jains,  to whom the elephant-headed god Ganesha has for more than 1,500 years represented wisdom,  new beginnings, luck,  and the ability to remove obstacles.

Elephant Reintroduction Foundation banner with Queen Sirikit of Thailand.

World Elephant Day

Janumani also gained her freedom one day prior to the tenth annual World Elephant Day,  a commemorative occasion established in 2012 by Patricia Sims of the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand.

Begun in 1996,  through the initiative of Queen Sirikit of Thailand,  the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand exists “to offer an alternative future for domestic elephants,  one in which they will live out their remaining life in the forest,  away from humans,  as nature intended,”  its web site declares.

“The reintroduction process started,”  the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation of Thailand explains,  on January 14,  1997,  when Her Majesty Queen Sirikit released three elephants.”

Twenty-four Thai elephants had been released by 2002,  when the Elephant Reintroduction Foundation became an internationally recognized nonprofit organization and the stimulus to a growing movement worldwide,  of which Janumani was the latest beneficiary.

Janumani the elephant.

Janumani

Travelling non-stop for 18 hours,  Janumani was delivered safely to her new home, a large secluded elephant pasture, adjacent to a forest.

When Janumani opened her eyes as World Elephant Day dawned,  she must have felt she was still dreaming.

Taken from her original forest habitat in Assam state,  in the farthest east part of India,  two thousand miles from Goa,  Janumani returned to something similar for the balance of her natural life.

Janumani spent the first part of her years in captivity at the infamous Sonepur animal fair in Bihar. From there,  she was transported to Goa,  where she survived 17 years,  mostly tied to a tree under a tarpaulin sheet for a roof,  just outside a spice farm where she became an amusement for tourists.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Wedding prop

Elephants are gregarious animals.  Keeping them tethered alone and to themselves is itself inflicting misery.

Janumani occasionally left the farm.  She was sent for temple rituals in Karnataka and Maharashtra states,  and to the Ayyappa temple at Vasco.  She was also rented out for destination beach weddings.

Draped in ornate fabric, she would be transported to the venue in jolting trucks,  or was even forced to walk on foot,  often without food and water.  Hundreds of wedding guests would line up for selfies or a quick elephant ride and the wedding couple would parade sitting on her back.

Elephant Janumani.

Elephants do not belong in Goa

Elephants do not belong to Goa’s forest habitat. Goa has no wild elephant population and, almost uniquely in India,  no cultural history of elephant captivity.  We of Goa are therefore inclined to treat them as exotic toys,  to be played around with.

As tourism to Goa grew,  posters and advertisements luring tourists to “Elephant Safari,” “Elephant Experience” and “Elephant Baths” began to be seen,  including on Goa tourism websites.

A complaint written by a foreign tourist in 2013 about her elephant experience on a spice farm stated:

“It was a circus performance.  The elephants had to turn around,  dance,  play cowboy with a lasso,  play polo,  soccer,  basketball,  sit on their back legs,  draw pictures with a brush,  and demonstrate logging.  To make them do all of these things,  the elephants were treated very roughly.”

Elephant at work in Jaipur, India.
(Help In Suffering photo)

Two bucks a ride

Hundreds of tourists,  foreign and Indian,  flock to these spice farms or adventure parks,  paying 700 rupees (less than $2.00 U.S.) for a simple elephant ride.  Bathing in a river along with the elephant,   occasionally being showered by the animal,  would cost much more.

Visitors may also receive blessings — standing or kneeling — from an elephant who is compelled to raise her trunk over the head of the person.

Some elephants are stationed at temples to encourage devotees to make generous offerings to the gods.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Creatures of the wild

We are taught to believe that elephants are “gentle giants,”  so we mistake their apparent willingness to submit to various performances as an expression of their friendliness or a false sense of an animal-human bond.

But this is far from the truth.

We must never forget that elephants are creatures of the wild and therefore must be forced into submission through regular brutal beatings to carry out these tiresome,  grueling tasks,  from dawn to dusk.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Five-year legal battle

Janumani’s confiscation and rescue from a life of daily abuse,  bonded labor,  and captivity came through a five-year legal battle waged before the Bombay High Court at Goa by People for Animals Goa,  the local nonprofit namesake of the national People for Animals organization founded in 1988 by Maneka Gandhi.

Much as U.S. nonprofit animal advocacy organizations use the names “SPCA” and “humane society” while establishing their own programs and policies and raising their own funds,  independent of the American SPCA and Humane Society of the United States,  each People for Animals chapter is autonomous.

In 2018 an animal rights activist notified the High Court of Bombay at Goa that twelve 12 elephants were held in illegal captivity at three spice farms located in Ponda taluka,  who were being used for commercial activity without the approval of the Animal Welfare Board of India.

(Beth Clifton collage)

Nowhere to put impounded elephants

This spurred the Goa Forest Department to enquire into the ownership documents relating to the elephants. Finding none,  the Forest Department in December 2018 issued orders seizing all 12 elephants and filed a case against the owners for illegal possessing the elephants.

However,  since the Forest Department had no place to take the elephants,  they continued to remain in the custody of the spice farms.

People For Animals in January 2020 filed a follow-up lawsuit in the Goa High Court by People for Animals,  responding to reports of commercial use of the elephants continuing at two of the three spice farms where the elephants were held.

At the request of People for Animals,  the High Court authorized an expert committee led by Bangalore-based elephant ecologist Surendra Varma  to examine the health and well-being of the 10 elephants who remained alive.  Among them all,  Janumani scored lowest on welfare.  Saving Janumani thus became People for Animals’ singular focus.

Transferred to Karnataka

But India only has four dedicated captive Elephant Rescue Centers,  and they were already full to capacity.

Fortunately for Janumani,  the Karnataka Forest Department had just set up a new elephant care facility and expressed willingness to accommodate Janumani in it.

Moved by the concern of all for the well being of Janumani,  the High Court bench of Justice M.S. Sonak and R.N. Laddha on July 18,  2022 permitted her transfer,  further declaring that “we will appreciate if the Forest Department officials act with utmost dispatch so that there is no delay in the matter.”

Goa chief wildlife warden Santosh Kumar pushed the paperwork through to get the order of release issued within the week.  There was some tension when Janumani’s self-proclaimed owner approached the Supreme Court to try to stall the High Court’s directions,  but by the time the matter came up before the apex court,  Janumani had already reached her new home.

(Circa 1930,  source unknown)

“Janumani is doing very well”

The Supreme Court added its own push to the entire project when it dismissed the special leave petition of the owner.

We are told that Janumani is doing very well in her new home,  and will shortly be introduced to three new sisters who are already at the Karnataka facility.

Beth & Merritt Clifton, with African friend.

Together,  after a lifetime of abuse and exploitation, they can live as close to a natural life as possible.

While Janumani is the first to be set free,  there remain other captive elephants in Goa.  We continue work on their behalf.

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