Free Ganesh

Circus Elephants

Circuses house multiple elephants in spaces that are a fraction of the size of vast forests that these animals need to freely roam in. These animals are also then further "trained" (using physical violence) to perform tricks and stunts, continuing the abuse they experienced during their domestication.

Circus elephants

Elephant performing

Elephants in Tourism

There are also individual elephant owners that make a living by giving tourists rides on the elephants' backs.

In the name of propagating and championing culture and tradition, many organizations offer elephant rides, interactions with elephants, parades, etc. These organizations are often customers of elephant training schools — they buy domesticated elephants from these training schools — and thus indirectly and tacitly supporting the abuse of elephants.

Elephants in Eco-tourism

There are different kinds of eco-tourism, pertaining to elephants:

• Jungle safaris: these take people in vehicles into jungles to view elephants in their natural surroundings. This is good and educational. We learn how elephants thrive in the wild, the structure of their families, etc.
• Elephant sanctuaries: Even when an elephant owner decides to return their animals to the forest, these elephants are not used to fending for themselves right away and need to be hand-fed for some time, before being released back to the forests. Elephant sanctuaries act as a halfway house for elephants, and are thus laudable. During their time in these sanctuaries, the sanctuaries allow visitors to view the elephants.

  But, a sanctuary has the potential to degenerate into an elephant viewing centre (see below). This does happen often and causes the organization to unnecessarily prolong the elephants' stay at the sanctuary and thus delay their release into the forest, or even obtain new domesticated elephants from elephant schools (training camps) to replace/augment any released elephants.

• Elephant viewing centres: these house several captive, domesticated elephants, offering elephant rides for visitors. The elephants are purchased from elephant training schools or elephant markets and the entire focus is on generating revenue using elephants as the product.

Health Hazards

Elephants are not created by nature to carry large loads on their backs. We don't see elephants in the wild carrying their young on their backs, do we? Habitually forcing an elephant to carry loads puts continuous pressure on its spine and damages and weakens its backbone, making it sag.

In the photo below, the elephant of the right is a forest elephant and looks as a healthy elephant should. The one of the left is an elephant forced to carry a platform full of tourists and a mahout, causing its back to sag.

How to stop this cruelty in your state: click on the name of a state at the top to see a list of organizations in that state. There, use the ready-to-send note to communicate your concerns to the organization.