On World Elephant Day, This Unique Campaign Drawing Attention To The Plight Of Captive Jumbos
From 2011, every year, August 12 is celebrated as 'World Elephant Day' to create awareness of the urgent plight of elephants, both in Asia and Africa, amid the rapid decline in their population, due to habitat loss and poaching for ivory.
Several animal rights groups have also used the occasion to create awareness about the plight of captive elephants in countries like India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.
In India, captive elephants, are mostly used as tourist attractions and religious processions. Some years ago elephants were widely used in the timber logging industry as well, which has now significantly reduced.
Irrespective of what they are used for the captive elephants live a life of misery, away from their natural habitat, in chains, starved and at times lonely.
World Animal Protection, an NGO has appealed to the Rajasthan Government to retire all captive elephants currently used for riding in Amer Fort in Jaipur as safari animals. Last year after an inspection of 98 captive elephants at the Haathi Gaon, a team of experts had recommended withdrawing the jumbos from rides.
Another animal rights group, Wildlife SOS has launched a campaign called 'Toe Grey' to create awareness about elephants suffering in captivity for tourism.
On the occasion of World Elephant Day, they have appealed to animal lovers worldwide to paint toenails grey to show solidarity for imperiled elephants.
Over 2,500 of those elephants are captive in India and are exploited for begging, processions, weddings, and in the entertainment and tourism industry.
A vast majority of these captive elephants suffer from chronic foot damage caused by walking on blistering-hot city streets and stepping on sharp debris. They are often housed on concrete floors and their feet are chained for extended periods of time, which leads to foot rot and many diseases.?
In addition, elephants used for tourist rides have compounded health issues including damage and deformities to their backs and feet. These injuries require constant care, but often receive little or no treatment.?
¡°Now is the time for people to kick off their shoes and paint their toes grey to show the world that they care about saving endangered elephants,¡± said Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of Wildlife SOS.
?¡°Typically World Elephant Day focuses on the plight of all elephants; however, this year we are bringing extra attention to the condition of the feet of elephants that are kept in captivity,¡± said Satyanarayan.??
"This year, due to the pandemic we decided to go online with the campaign. We have appealed to animal lovers to stand up for the captive elephants. Since elephants are grey colour, we are asking people to paint their toe nails the same," Arinita, a spokesperson of Wildlife SOS told Indiatimes.?
Wildlife SOS which runs India's largest care facility for elephants said that a large number of jumbos they have rescued over the years suffer from health issues, mostly on their legs.
"Several elephants under our care suffer from terrible foot problems. Some have chronic arthritis, cracked nails, worn-out foot pads as they are made to walk on the road etc and they hardly get any foot care, which is so important for an animal like an elephant that has to support such a massive body on its foot," Arinita said.
