Hard labour for killer elephant
2002-05-21 11:10
Kaziranga, India - Two-and-a-half years after he killed an American tourist and
gored a fellow elephant to death, 53-year-old tusker Godapani is
still being put to hard work at one of India's best known national
parks.
Looking tired at the end of a long day of mundane duties, the
three-metre tall bull is no longer able to bear his own
weight, dropping to the ground the moment his duty hours are over.
A fateful fit of anger on November 17, 1999, cost Godapani his
cosy former job: carrying visitors four times a day around
Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
Instead he has been put on a rigorous drill of warding off
poachers and wild elephants and delivering supplies to isolated
staff.
A split-second of anger was Godapani's undoing. Early in the
morning he and six other tame elephants were in the middle of the
park, where visitors rode on their backs to see the wildlife at
close quarters.
Suddenly Godapani went berserk and killed Mary Mead Bumder, an
80-year-old tourist from Boston who was riding another elephant
about a metre away.
The enraged tusker then gored the tuskless male elephant hired
by Bumder, tearing apart its stomach.
'No-nonsense type of an elephant'
Godapani had been carrying tourists around the park since 1972
without incident and had been considered the most
noble of the 45 elephants the park authorities employ for tourists.
"Godapani no longer takes visitors on his back," said NK Vasu,
the park warden.
"Instead we are using him for carrying out security patrol
inside the park, to drive away wild elephant herds, and also
utilising him to carry rations to forest guards in camps located
deep inside the sanctuary."
After the tragedy, Godapani was chained for days at a remote
forest camp with his keeper Mahendra Karmakar, who kept a close
watch on his behaviour.
The keeper believes Godapani shed tears of repentance, not
eating a morsel of food then.
After some weeks, Karmakar again rode Godapani and still does
so.
"Today Godapani is absolutely normal and does his job with
utmost sincerity. I don't know what led him to turn violent that
day," Karmakar said.
"He is still the best tame elephant in the park with his tall
stature and majestic [he scares] even wild herds. Otherwise he is
very gentle and no-nonsense type of an elephant." - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA