Animal Focus

On this page we focus on the plight of individual animals. While many are rescued and brought to sanctuary, millions of other animals remain in captivity and are fated to suffer and die without relief. Animal Focus is part of our mission to bear witness and bring attention to these valiant heroes.

Girija Prasad, Asian Elephant

Girija, also known as Manikantan, is a twenty year old Asian elephant who worked for many years as a temple elephant in Banglaore, India. All elephants in captivity in India undergo a traumatic and cruel process of "breaking." Over the years, he was routinely beaten and tortured to achieve compliance and to discourage any escape attempts. As part of "training", he was kept without shelter in the tropical sun and chained just out of reach of water. At other times, he was hit with a pointed metal rod and pierced around his face, genitals, and mouth. For 22 hours a day, he wore tight chains around his ankles so that he could not move and kept in isolation.

In 2004, he was rescued by Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), an animal welfare organization based in Bangalore. Girija's release occurred when CUPA filed a police complaint protesting Girija's treatment. The petition achieved temporary success and Girija was taken from temple and transferred to a succession of locales since there are presently no elephant sanctuaries in India nor adequate government funds for these purposes. The Elephant Welfare Assessment carried out by Dr. Surendra Varma of the Asian Elephant Specialist Group (AESG) SSC/IUCN, evaluate Girija's condition and care as dangerously poor. Over sixty wounds to his face and neck alone were identified (see photo inset).

Girija was finally brought to the Bannerghatta Biological Park, 22 kilometers from Bangalore, where his maintenance and part support was rendered by CUPA to the Forest Department. The situation is not ideal, but it represents a vast improvement over his life at the temple. He is no longer beaten, has relatively free movement, and receives good food and shelter, He is allowed to forage in the forest, albeit on chains, to interact with other elephants, and has trained mahouts to look after him. In sum, he has been housed in a place that recognizes his needs as free elephant rather than as a commercial icon of temple worship.

After his transfer to the Bannerghatta Biological Park, near Bangalore, Girija's overall health improved. However, due to his sudden violent outbursts, he was allowed only limited contact with his peers. He has been diagnosed with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition not uncommon to humans who have been tortured and imprisoned for sustained periods of time. It is unlikely that many of his current symptoms will subside, although with continued social and physical support, the frequency of violent episodes may decrease.

On March 13, 2008, after four years of negotiations and meetings with wildlife wardens and ministers and several hearings in the Karnataka High Court, Girija won his case. In a precedent setting move, Chief Wildlife Warden, Mr. I.B.Srivastava ordered that Owner Certificate dt. 25.02.02 be cancelled and took over custody of the animal and has extended all facilities pertaining and on par with other departmental elephants. This is the first time in India that the "Ownership Certificate" of a temple was revoked due to ill-treatment of an elephant. CUPA is currently petitioning the Supreme Court to define legally elephant cruelty as it applies in future cases of abuse.

This notable victory for Girija will influence the lives and wellbeing of other elephants living in India. However, there is need to establish sanctuary for elephants and conservation to expand and protect captive as well as wild elephants.

For more information or to help CUPA establish elephant sanctuaries in India, contact Ms Suparna Ganguly and visit CUPA's website.

Read Further

Bradshaw, G.A. 2008. Inside looking out: neuroethological compromise effects on elephants in captivity. In An Elephant in the Room: the Science and Well-being of Elephants in Captivity. North Grafton MA: Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine's Center for Animals and Public Policy. (eds). D. L. Forthman, L.F.Kane and P. F. Waldau.

Bradshaw, G. A. (2007). Psychological Assessment of Girija Prasad (Manikantan). Letter to Chief Minister of Wildlife.

Bradshaw, G.A. (2007). Of pachyderms, perils, and people. The George Lucas Foundation Press, 3(7), 24-25.

Bradshaw, G.A.(2007). Elephants in circuses: analysis of practice, policy, and the future. Policy Paper, Animals and Society Institute.

Bradshaw, G.A. & A.N. Schore. 2007. How elephants are opening doors: developmental neuroethology, attachment, and social context. Ethology. 113: 426–436.

Ghosh, R. (2005). Gods in chains. Banglalore, India: The Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center Press.

Reuters. (2008). Factbox: Where are Asia's endangered wild elephants? Retrieved Mar 15, 2008 from http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSP299371

Siebert, C. (2006). An Elephant Crackup? (pdf/html). The New York Times Magazine, October 8, 2006.

Asian Elephant Facts

Asia's elephants once roamed across nine million square kilometres of forests from the Iranian coast to the Indian subcontinent, Java, Sumatra and Borneo, and China. Now extinct in west Asia, Java and most of China, about 40,000 to 50,000 remain in pockets of forest in 13 states.

About 15,000 Asian elephants live in captivity as work animals, mostly in India, Myanmar and Thailand. By contrast, there are only about 500 captive African elephants, mostly in western zoos, and a wild population of 400,000-660,000 animals.

Here are some facts about Asia's wild elephants and the threats facing them, listed by estimated population size:

INDIA: 23,900-32,900. Home to 60 percent of Asia's elephants, India has the highest death rate from human-elephant conflict, with 200-250 people and 100 elephants killed annually. Habitat fragmentation, poaching of tusked males, and patchy forest law enforcement are problems, but numbers are rebounding.

MYANMAR: 3,000-4,000. Most large herds live in forested hills by the borders with Bangladesh, India, China, and Thailand. Wild capture was banned in 1994, but captives are still taken to join 4,500 working elephants in logging camps.

THAILAND: 3,000-3,700. Numbers dropped sharply with human population growth and forest clearances. Legal ivory sales from captive elephants allegedly lets dealers 'launder' illegal ivory.

SRI LANKA: 2,100-3,000. The stars of many local festivals, herds have been pushed to the southwest of the island due to intense conflict over crops, and blown up by landmines.

INDONESIA: 1,180-1,557 Sumatra. No Borneo estimate. Rapid forest conversions has hit Sumatran and Bornean elephants hard. From 1985, hundreds were taken to Sumatran 'Elephant Training Centres' to stop conflict. Many died. Intense conflict remains.

MALAYSIA: 1,250-1,466 Peninsula and 1,100-1,600 Borneo. Hundreds have been removed to national parks since the 1970s, to stop raids on plantations as jungles were cleared. Translocation has ensured healthy elephant populations.

LAOS: 780-1,200. Known as the Land of a Million Elephants, herds suffer hunting and habitat loss from logging, agriculture and hydroelectric projects. Lack of funds hampers conservation.

BHUTAN: 400-600. Confined to southern plains and foothills elephants are mostly seasonal migrants, crossing to Bhutan to escape India's monsoons, and migrating back to India in summer.

CAMBODIA: 250-600. Elephants helped build ancient Angkor Wat, but also are hunted for ivory and meat, blown up by land mines in the civil war and killed for raiding crops. Relatively good habitat makes them better placed than others for a recovery.

CHINA: 200-250. Small but viable herds live in southern Yunnan province. Numbers are rising, thanks to reproduction and immigration of Laos herds. China is also a large illegal manufacturer and trader of ivory, mostly from African elephants.

BANGLADESH: 196-227. The human population explosion sparked intense competition for land and conflicts with elephants, which now live only in isolated areas. A lack of active conservation projects makes Bangladesh's elephants highly threatened.

NEPAL: 100-170. Many roam between India and Nepal, where rapidly rising human populations devastated lowland forest herds. Small herds have stabilised in protected reserves.

VIETNAM: 76-94. Hunting, forest clearances and warfare that saw forests bombed and poisoned with Agent Orange and other defoliants, made elephants functionally extinct. Conservationists hope inviable herds will cross to Cambodia and Laos.

Sources: Reuters, Interview with Professor Raman Sukumar, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, EleAid Web Site.