The Elephant will Return to Natural Habitat

The Elephant will Return to Natural Habitat

Written by

PROF. M.A. HAQUE

Published on

August 11, 2022

The BSP, ruling party in Uttar Pradesh, is often troubled with having to defend construction of memorials for the Dalit icons in Lucknow, Noida, etc. in different courts of law, including the Supreme Court.

Some people consider it misuse of political power by BSP and go to courts alleging the money to the tune of several thousands crores from the government exchequer is being spent on construction of elephants in memorials and parks while many burning problems relating to the poor are being ignored on the plea of paucity of funds. This,  they call, outrageous and conscience-stirring, calling for stoppage of such expenditure forthwith and investment of this huge amount in providing necessary civic amenities without which population of the state continues to be robbed of the human dignity.

To the people’s oft-repeated allegation that elephant being the symbol of BSP, the expenditure incurred on the construction of elephants is to promote the interest of the party and its publicity on the cost of taxpayer’s money. BSP rejects it saying that an elephant with raised trunk is not its election symbol but denotes a sign of welcome.

 

ELEPHANT CREATES RUCKUS

As if the political controversy and legal battle in courts revolving around elephant were not enough, the wayward conduct of an elephant in a marriage party raises questions and similarities of very far-reaching implications which need to be looked into. The marriage party referred to above was arranged by two leaders of BSP, which has an elephant for its electoral symbol. Of late the party seems to revert to concentrate on its core constituency of Dalits rather than attach utmost importance to ‘sarvajan’.

Social engineering of soliciting and getting huge support from Brahmins, thanks to colossal efforts by Mr. S.C. Mishra during UP Assembly Election, will become a thing of the past. Ousting of government advocates, mostly Brahmins, points to systemic erosion of status and authority of Mr Mishra in the party and is a clear indication of which way the wind is blowing. BSP has practically reduced the role of S.C. Mishra as an advocate looking after court cases and providing solace to the party in various such cases including cases relating to disproportionate assets and other cases before Income Tax Department. Likewise, Vijay Shankar Pande, Additional Cabinet Secretary, also stands removed.

 

THE INCIDENT

It was the wedding of Bahujan Samaj Party’s MP Kadir Rana’s son Shah Mohammed with BSP Rajya Sabha MP Munquad Ali’s daughter Sumbul Parveen at Meerut on February 25. The venue near the Meerut-Delhi Road tastefully decorated with flowers of sorts, artificial decorative techniques imaginatively employed, much illumination turning night into day and sweet fragrance creating an atmosphere of gaiety, grandeur and splendour. The lavish celebrations, not to talk of the multi-course dinner with different famous delicacies with varieties to cater to the taste of distinguished guests attired in their best apparels, ran the riot with colour. And it was on the expected lines; the two famous families had entered into a relationship of marriage cementing the bonds of comradeship and party membership further at the familial level also.

Not to be left behind in any ritual below the standards of royalty, there were about 15 elephants to welcome the esteemed guests. The elephants were in the pose befitting the occasion of welcoming as was done in princely states of the yore.

 

JUMBO IN HEAT, MOOD UPBEAT

Among these elephants was one called ‘Sheru’ who was in heat that time. ‘Musth’ is a physiological condition, accompanied by rise in blood testosterone, a secretion from temporal glands showing behavioural changes. This happens around the age of 12-15 years, at different times of the year for each elephant. It is said that a male elephant is in heat every year for up to seven days. During this critical period it becomes aggressive even towards other elephants and goes beyond control. It later became known that his mahaut, Shamil remained ignorant and did not act as required.

The elephant went berserk around 11 p.m; Shamil adopted the path of least resistance and simply did the vanishing trick under the impression that he would thus ward off the ill-consequences of having bungled with Sheru’s calendar calculations for ‘musth’ period. It is also said that Sheru’s reason for going berserk was the gunshots fired as part of celebrations. The first causality of the animal displaying its enormous energy and rage was the traffic to and fro the national capital. The tusker over-turned parked vehicles including a Police Highway Vehicle and a Ford Endeavour. In the process about a dozen vehicles, many among them luxury vehicles, and the highway traffic were thrown out of gear, causing great inconvenience to the guests at the ceremony and the general public. The thorough traffic could not be restored until 3 p.m. next day, i.e. after about 16 hours of sustained efforts to bring the tusker under control after procuring services of teams from Dehradun, Delhi and Lucknow.

 

OFFICIAL VERSION

Mr. A.K. Dwivedi, Chief Conservator of Forests (Western Zone), Meerut said that around the midnight of Wednesday, he received the first call about the incident when Meerut Police having sent more that 100 of its men realised that it was not like catching an offender, a robber or a thief or a law breaker. They realised that they needed help from the experts. The CCF mobilised teams from Delhi and such far-off places as Dehradun and Lucknow. Armed with necessary accessories to catch ‘Sheru’ – ropes, darts, rifles, tranquilisers, they set off for Meerut Bypass Road. The team included members from the Wildlife Trust of India, an elephant specialist from Delhi Dr. Ashraf, Director of Wild Rescue Programme of the WTI, specialists from Rajaji National Park, Dehradun, an emergency team from Lucknow consisting of Dr. Utkarsh Shukla, a veterinarian at the Prince of Wales Zoo and Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs). Soon Mr. Dwivedi grasped the gravity of the situation. When the teams reached the site, they tried and succeeded in cornering Sheru in a tiny sugarcane field off the road. The team got  the trenches dug around to keep him confined but this strategy did not work as Sheru jumped over the trenches and in no time, was at large and returned to the road threatening people with repetition of his activities of great frightening nature.

It was around 2 p.m. on Thursday, i.e. next day that the expert Dr. Ashraf managed to tranquilise Sheru, who was bound an hour later. No sooner that the tusker was bound, the mahout surfaced on the scene. Dr. Dwivedi explained the conduct of Sheru informing that “when elephants are in heat, they become dangerous. If left in a public place, they can cause a lot of damage. In the period of heat, tuskers are best kept confined.”

 

ELEPHANT’S FUTURE

It has now been decided that Sheru will be shifted to Dehradun National Park in Lakhimpur Kheri. The elephant at present lodged in Sanjay Van will thus settle down to the national surroundings of the forest where it feels at ease, unperturbed by fuss of cities with all its din and bustle.

Can a parallel be drawn between the conduct of Sheru and the BSP which too wants to go back to its original constituency of Dalits where it finds itself at ease compared to the company of different heterogeneous constituents as a result of the social engineering which enabled the BSP to secure absolute majority in U.P Assembly? With the fire of high ambition of becoming Prime Minister of the country continuing to rage in the heart of the BSP supremo, Ms Mayawati has to weigh the feelings of fellow Dalits all over India who may not have taken kindly to the spreading of the political field to ‘others’, thereby diminishing the importance of and advantages flowing therefrom, to the Dalit communities which have stood by their leader at all times and expect greater ‘say’ in political life as a reward to their loyalty.