August 12th is the World Elephants Day. I don’t have to say much. I have blogged enough out of love for elephants of India, especially the domesticated ones. May be in my previous janam I was a temple elephant. My elephantine love also has earned me a pet name from my friends, some of who happen to call me only by that name for years now! The Indian elephant: Such a gentle giant. Sweet and wise. Elephants are also very emotional creatures. Their communication in low frequency with their herd makes them a very intelligent mammal species. We may be the last few generations lucky to see the pachyderms in flesh and blood. If you are Indian, you may see a domesticated temple elephant walking casually alongside the road in heavy traffic! Cows, elephants and all at the green lights: that is India for you! The Indian elephants may go extinct by the turn of the century. Very recently was witnessed, the Wayanad landslide tragedy that buried villages. In the same river where a pregnant elephant stood dying having eaten a pineapple stuffed with explosives fed by villagers, at a different point in Wayanad, floated hundreds of lifeless bodies and torn homes. That is the power of nature. Karma is real. When the last elephant is gone, it shall take away the bees and the trees with them. Who is Shiva. Shiva is the elephant. Elephant is Shiva. Imagine barring elephants from elephant corridors that they walked and knew by instinct for millions of years. Destroying nature and doing your bit for quickening the extinction of a mammoth and distinctive species from the face of earth hardly counts to me as faith. Brutal inhumane treatment of the tuskers in our temples by those who swear by vegetarianism hardly makes sense. You know what is meant by halaal? Killing in one stroke going for the jugular – making it painless for the beast. What makes people judge races on their food habits. Its those who rear elephants in Guruvayur who are cruel and heartless. Not the beef eaters. The breaking of the will of the elephant calf – this can be heartwrenching. The calf that shall grow into a fine male tusker to bear the deities on his back starts believing that the chains are his limits. Broken psychologically. India has a chance if the temple elephant culture comes to a close. India can hope about adding a decade or more years to the elephants of the subcontinent if the Dasara parade of the elephants may come to an end. There is no point otherwise in the prime minister going on record about the world elephants day. It is still in the government power to do something about it. For those in power, everything unfortunately is about vote bank. They can never go against their vested interests. Such a sad day really.
Meanwhile every elephant that walks on earth to me is saakshaath Ganesha! Cannot imagine our Vinayaka bound by chains, can you.
vijiravindran's 