Reading a book on African elephants and learning that the jumbos with their underbelly rumblings communicate on a very low frequency like the whales of the seven seas, that which waves may be inaudible to human ears, and that these aural vibrations transmit via conduits in atmosphere through the herds, and even across neighbouring herds to envelope the entire African continent supposedly, i have this doubt about the temple elephants in India. Do these unfortunate creatures languishing in the abodes of our gods, captured as calves from the jungles get a chance to learn the elephantine telepathy language. Do they voice their sufferings to fellow pachyderms in the same temple premises or those in the area and/or to those across the geographical territory (such as the states of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu for instance). Can the temple elephants communicate with wild elephants in Munnar or Kabini or Mudumalai or Ranthambore or any other forest reserve in India. If so, what is the expected range. Indian elephant corridors run across the Deccan coasts east and west, cut through central India and up to the Himalayan foothills and Bengal. Do the wild tuskers roaming our sanctuaries hear the feeble cries of our long suffering captive temple elephants. As I wonder, do our temple elephants separated as calves from their herds even pick up some elemental elephantine communication skills. Not only physically mighty and imposing, even endowed with a very keen intelligence and sharp memory power and with a very advanced metaphysical communication sense far superior to human communication evolution history, it is unbelievable that we are chaining these gentle giants breaking their spirit and ‘conditioning’ them. That breaking of the elephant brought in from the wild: it is heartwrenching. So much so that the towering mammoth feels after all, a simple iron chain can control it. How brutally must this wild beast be broken to come to believe in such an illogic. There are media news on temple elephants going on rampage when pushed to ‘work’ in musth conditions. I am yet to finish the book but this I am thinking about the the temple elephants keeping their communication channels open with their wild brethren. Are Indian/Asian elephants as keen and smart as the African wild elephant. We have an issue here. Ours are domesticated, the ones with temples especially. Which means they are in constant contact with homosapiens. Would that dull the senses of our temple elephants rendering them incapable of establishing or staying in touch with their longlost brothers and sisters in the wild? Just a thought.
vijiravindran's 