Pittsburgh_Patrika_October_2019

The Pittsburgh Patrika, Vol, 25, No. 1, October 2019
Dekho Hamara Hindustan
Story of A Missing Elephant
This could happen only in Hamara Hindustan. An elephant went missing,
not in one of the Kerala-Karnataka Temples where elephants are part of
the temple retinue. And not in their natural habitat in the Western Ghats in
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, where
road signs display elephant corridors warning
motorists of herds of wild elephants
crossing — like deer crossing signs here.
Remember, these winding roads in India
go through the natural forest habitat of the
elephants. So, on these roads elephants
have the right of way over motorists for
road crossings. See the picture below.
But this elephant went missing in July
this year in — hold your breath — of all
the places, metropolitan New Delhi with a bulging population of over 18
million people. And Laxmin, the elephant, was the only one in the entire
Delhi Metro area at that time.
According to the story in the Indian Express (September 17, 2019),
the missing elephant Laxmi kept the Delhi Police and wildlife officials
on its tail since July, with a nationwide alert being sounded. The
35-year old pachyderm
was last seen along the
banks of the Yamuna.
But Laxmi was kept
right in New Delhi all
the while by her mahout
Yusuf Ali.
The relationship between
elephants and its
owners and mahout is
symbiotic. Often, elephants outlive their mahouts and when the mahouts
die, elephants weep in grief and refuse food for days.
Delhi’s wild life officials said in early January, Laxmi and five other
elephants in Delhi were kept in “poor housing and health conditions and
lack of suitable space and water facilities in Delhi, violating the 2008
guidelines by the Union Environment Ministry.”
One wonders why these “wild life” officials don’t recognize the wild
species of Homo sapiens in Delhi living in fancy high-rise apartments
Missing elephants.. ... continued on Page 33
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