Very often these days, and with alarming frequency, we find ourselves in conflict with wildlife. The lack of living space forces us into their territory. In almost all situations, sadly it’s the wildlife that is on the losing end.A couple of years ago in Coorg, a small group of elephants found themselves in a similar situation. Due to increasing human encroachments into their forest home, they ended up with practically nowhere to go. The matter was taken out of their hands when it was decided that this group should be captured. This was deemed to be a more humane approach as opposed to eliminating them. Not sure what the elephants take on this was! Would you rather die like a free bird or live in captivity?

An Elephant in Captivity

The capture operation was carried out by the Karnataka Forest Department and was a huge success. The captured elephants were taken to the Dubare Elephant Camp to be domesticated. Not a very gentle procedure to say the least; it includes starvation and confinement! Tragically, the elephants suffer deep emotional and physical wounds that last a lifetime!

A Elephant in Confinement

Not all things are right in Paradise; to experience the beauty of Coorg, it is also essential to know some of the pain hidden beneath.

Vikram Nanjappa

Vikram Nanjappa likes to be described as an interested and well-informed amateur. He draws his inspiration from the band of men called the Orientalists. By profession, they were soldiers and administrators. However, today, they are remembered as giants of scholarship. Like them, his field of enquiry is ‘Man and Nature; (with an emphasis on Nature) whatever is performed by the one or produced by the other’. He currently resides in Bangalore and is a freelance writer and photographer. Vikram's contact: nanjappavikram@yahoo.co.in.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 4:12 PM and is filed under Herbivores, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.