THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The sensationalist British tabloid Daily Mail, which boasts 100 million viewers a month for its website, has misquoted veterinary experts and painted an “exaggerated” version of elephant cruelty in Guruvayur’s Punnathur Kotta.
The report, a first-person account that appeared on the tabloid’s website on Monday, looks like an attempt to tug at the heartstrings of European tourists.
“Tortured for tourists: Chained to the same spot for 20 years”, the headline screams. Elephants are ill-treated in Punnathur Kota, as many studies have revealed, but even die-hard elephant lovers say that the kind of cruelty reported in Daily Mail is far-fetched.
The report states that three elephants in Punnathur Kotta have been chained to one spot for 20 years.
The report quotes Dr Nameer, head of the Centre for Wildlife Studies in the state, as saying that the elephant Nandan has been chained to one spot. “Never released even for an hour, for 20 years,” he is quoted as saying.
Dr Nameer is shocked. “She has not only quoted me without permission but has printed things I have never said,” he told DC. “There is cruelty, but to say that elephants are tied to one spot for 20 years is a stretch,” he said. Dr Nameer has shot a rejoinder to Daily Mail. He said that some Karnataka experts the English reporter has quoted too had decided to send a rejoinder.
Activist Suparna Ganguly, who had investigated the conditions in Punnathur Kotta last year, said that there were elephants chained to one spot for months. “I have however not heard of elephants being tied up for 20 years,” she said. Still, Ms Ganguly said Guruvayur deserved such an embarrassment. “Ever since we submitted the report, we had been pressing the Devaswom to give an action-taken report. They have not obliged.”
She pleaded with the Devaswom to take at least three simple practical steps: walk the elephants for at least three hours, keep the females together, and stop taking elephants above 60 for processions. Guruvayur Devaswom has ignored the advice.
