The elephantine journey: yesterday and today
Feb 18, 12
Around 600 million years ago this animal first arrived the world. For ages, men have used it for moving heavy vehicles and objects.
Kings in ancient time, used to ride this animal, elephant, used it as a part of their army. The number of elephants signified, economically how powerful they were. Chandragupta Mourya had almost 10,000 elephants in his army. Gautam Buddha started using elephants as a symbol of Buddha culture & heritage.
In Mughal period Akbar had 30,000 of elephant in his army. Later on, it increased to 1, 33,000. History says, that the Number of elephants Akbar had was one main pillar behind his strength.
But the present scenario is totally different from the past. In Asia, only 50,000 elephants manage to survive. Among them, 30,000 as in India. Except India, the Asian elephant can be found Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, Myanmar, Sri lanka, Indonesia. In India, elephants mostly can be found in, God’s own country, ‘Kerala’ & ‘Karnataka’, the number is only 6,000.
Recently, the number of the elephants has decreased drastically, which is not a good thing, for the wild life conservation.
The people of India, worship elephant as ‘Lord Ganesha’. But the present circumstances is not good for the Lord of Jungle, the forest is being cut randomly day & night. The elephants are being forced to enter the men’s land, which is resulting in death of many elephants. The deep forest of north Bengal has become almost a death trap for elephants. The Indian rail runs through this deep forest & and often smash elephants. However, thankfully, the train transportation remains stopped at night.
|
Year |
Unnatural Death of Elephants |
Attacks by Elephants, Resulting to Death | Elephants have destroyed food crops, worth: (in lakhs) |
|
2008-2009 |
37 |
39 |
820.03 |
|
2009-2010 |
30 |
22 |
315.70 |
|
2010-2011 |
35 |
42 |
310.30 |
However, the recent awareness being spread for saving elephants gives birth of a good hope which could ensure a better future for elephants.
Reported by: Kalyanjit Das
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