Internet action to save wild Indian elephant tribe

The Northern Rivers Echo

March 19, 2009

It is impossible to compare the feeling of an elephant’s trunk touching your skin with any other sensation. Or convey in words the exhilaration of sitting atop an elephant feeling the gigantic muscles bunch and stretch under your body with each colossal footfall. Or explain just how profound an experience it can be to sit beside a creature of that size, massaging its ears and stomach while it purrs and gently growls with pleasure. And all the while, you’re aware of its enormous power, how it could roll over and crush you in an instant, yet instead interacts like a family dog playing with a child, the touch of its trunk playful and delicate.

It is a magic that’s very much real and alive, for the moment anyway.

But humanity’s relentless lust for progress and blatant disregard for nature is threatening the largest remaining population of wild elephants.

John Seed from the Rainforest Information Centre recently returned from the Southern Indian state of Kerala, where this wild elephant population is being endangered by a massive government development.

The elephants have to migrate every year between areas in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in search of food and water. But land-clearing and development has reduced one section of their migration path to only 2.5 kilometres in width.

“Right there the government in Kerala is planning a massive development that would disrupt the whole thing,” John said.

The government is planning to put four different departmental check posts on the major interstate highway within the corridor. The project would involve building complexes, housing, offices and a fuel filling station. It would also mean hundreds of trucks would be parked along the side of the road.

“There are alternative places for this development to take place,” John said. “The elephant is not just a Kerala matter or an Indian matter, this is a world matter. There is not one school child that doesn’t know about this animal. It doesn’t just belong to India and I fully believe if enough people send an email to the relevant officials in Kerala, the Chief Minister and others, we can change this. In doing so we can create a movement that can start to address some of the other issues facing the elephants.”

John is encouraging everybody who loves elephants to visit the website www.rainforestinfo.org.au/e/appeal.htm where they can learn more and write letters to the relevant government officials.