No More Chains, Nehru Zoological Park Elephants Roam Free
For years, Vanaja, Asha, and Sita spent their nights in shackles
HYDERABAD: For years, Vanaja, Asha, and Sita spent their nights in shackles. The strong steel chains would rub against their legs night after night cutting through the inch thick skin, and the wounds required regular treatment.
Today, Vanaja, the oldest of the four elephants in the Nehru Zoological Park is free, as are her companions Asha, and Sita. “When we decided to move them from their night house holding pens into the large enclosure and not chain them anymore, they would head back to the gate separating the two sections of their enclosure. They did not understand what was happening and why their keepers were not opening the gate for them to be taken in for the night and put in chains. This went on for some time till they figured out that there would be no more chains and they are free not just to roam the enclosure during the day, but also at night,” according to Dr Sunil Hiremath, director of zoos, Telangana.
For elephant keepers Md Ahmed and Md Haji, freeing the elephants from the chains was nothing short of a small miracle.
“Jaisa jangal me hai vasia firee choddiye (just like in the forest, we let them free),” Ahmed said with Haji jumping in to add “ek khusi si milti inku, jaisay ke ghumrein, acchese khaarain (they experience happiness the way they can roam, and getting good food).”
Even Dr Hiremath could not resist joining in. “Every morning they go for a two hour walk in the zoo. Their favourite spot is the hospital where food is prepared for all the animals in the morning. They stop there every morning, get some treats before moving on,” he said.
He said Asha was the worst affected with the chains and the zoo took help from Steve Koyle of Elephant Care Unchained from Arizona, US, and veterinarians from the elephant rescue centre in Karnataka for treating the injury and the abcess that formed on one of its feet. “Because the elephants were almost always in chains in the night house, they also started developing ingrown nails as they were not walking enough, and even arthritis from the constant standing. Today, even when we keep the connecting gate open, they do not go to the night house, and prefer to spend their time in the open enclosure,” Dr Hiremath explained
The elephant enclosure’s backdrop, the bund of the Mir Alam Tank, and a mud bank that the bund has, over a period of time, become the favourite spots for Vanaja, Asha, and Sitalakshmi or Sitalachmi – depending on whether it is Ahmed or Haji calling it – to take a nap, or sleep. “They slowly settle down on their sides on the mud bund and sleep,” Dr Hiremath said. “And no more ingrown nails as they are free to roam and search for treats that the keepers place here and there in the enclosure. Nehru Zoological Park is possibly one of the three in the country where elephants roam free,” he said.
However, Vijay, the lone male elephant at the zoo still lives in the night house and is on a restricted movement list given that his actions resulted in the death of an animal keeper in 2023. “He is quite well behaved but with that history, the decision was taken to keep him in a restricted space and being taken out for walks regularly,” Dr Hiremath said.
