Press Release: WILDLIFE SOS APPEALS TO HOLLYWOOD AND BOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES LIKE AMITABH BACHCHAN TO HELP RESCUE BEGGING STREET ELEPHANTS IN INDIA
Earlier this week the National Geographic Society’s online editorial news publication News Watch published a tribute to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan by India’s largest wildlife conservation and animal welfare organization, Wildlife SOS. The tribute recognized the Bollywood icon for bringing attention to one 54 year old suffering female Asian elephant — “Bijlee”— who is fighting for her life in critical condition on the side of the road in a suburb of Mumbai, India.
Bijlee, a former begging elephant is under the care of one of Wildlife SOS’s senior wildlife veterinarians. The CEO of the animal welfare and rescue charity Kartick Satyanarayan said, “We deployed Dr. Yaduraj nearly 10 days ago from our Agra- based facilities where he has been working with both bears and elephants.†Mr. Satyanarayan visited Bijlee personally to assess her condition and said, “Our entire Wildlife SOS team is very concerned about Bijlee’s rapidly declining health.” According to Dr. Yaduraj who radiographed Bijlee, “Her condition remains critical and her prognosis is not good.†He also said, “Long term and continuous neglect and abuse by her owner has had a profoundly negative impact on her health.”
The plight of working elephants in India like Bijlee is often quite disturbing. And the future is not much brighter for wild elephants as noted in the National Geographic article: “As human-dominated landscapes continue to accommodate more people, as a consequence of continued population growth, elephants and other species are relegated to roam the only secure wild lands on the Indian Subcontinent—protected parks and wildlife sanctuaries.”
Although Wildlife SOS is committed to conserving wild elephants and mitigating human-elephant conflict, right now they are dedicated to caring for eight rescued elephants. These pachyderms under human care include some former begging elephants at their Elephant Intensive Care Facility— “Elephant Haven†near Agra and their larger 400 acre and more recently constructed Elephant Rescue and Conservation Center in Haryana, India. The new Haryana facility is managed in collaboration with the state’s Forest Department with support from the Government of India’s Project Elephant.
Mr. Satyanarayan said, “Both captive and wild elephants are in trouble, in fact they are endangered. Hundreds of working elephants succumb to abuse and neglect by private owners everyday.” He went on to say that “Last week, a herd of wild elephants entered a school in Bangalore, which posed a threat not only to people, but possibly to the elephants themselves, this incident could have escalated, resulting in retaliatory killings of the wild elephants.
Human-elephant conflict and working elephant welfare issues persists throughout India and is a growing concern for conservationists and welfarists alike. For thousands of years working elephants were used in labor activities like logging, military activities and transportation, but such service needs of elephants were essentially rendering obsolete following the Industrial Revolution. With that said elephants continue to be exploited on the streets of India where they are forced to beg on the streets, in temples and perform in marriages or circuses.
Wildlife SOS recognized Mr. Amitabh Bachchan for bringing attention to Bijlee’s plight last week that drew national and international attention to the unfortunate lives of begging elephants in India. To further the cause Wildlife SOS launched their “Save India’s Begging Elephant†petition to help these working street elephants and extinguish the practice, as they have nearly done for dancing street bears. The organization has specifically appealed to other celebrities to come to the aid of begging elephants as Mr. Bachchan graciously did last week in his appeal to recruit help for Bijlee.
Contact: Jordan Schaul (jordan@wildlifesos.org)
