ALAPPUZHA: International online petition group ‘Care2’ has launched a campaign for saving Mundakkal Kannan aka Sekharan, an injured jumbo kept under scorching sun for over a month near here.
So far, 3,599 netizens have signed Rita Claessens's post. Deccan Chronicle had on June 27 exclusively reported the plight of the tusker of Karuvatta, Haripad, which suffers from festering wound on the hip.
The petition says the elephant has injuries all over the body but is forced to bear the heat and torrential rains as there is no shed prescribed by the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI). “The forest department in Kerala has to confiscate this elephant,” it says.
Kannan is one of the 384 elephants having no ownership certificate as per the provisions of the Declaration of Wildlife Stock Rule 2003.
Despite protests, it was paraded for Anayoottu at Tekkinkadu Maidan in Thrissur on July 17.
“Come on India, do the right thing,” Val Gaffney of France writes. “I have vowed to never purchase a product or support any industry in this country,” Terri Hyatt of Belgium wrote.
Owned by NRI businessman Shinu for a decade, the pachyderm is currently under Guruvayoor Devaswom Board employee Vijayan's custody.
Its health condition is fast deteriorating. Standing in the same position for a month, it collapsed as wounds turned cancerous recently.
Kannan had been displayed at hundreds of festivals across the state and was forced to do other hard jobs to earn for his master. The injury was visible half a decade back.
