As per Hindu mythology, ignoring the divine is akin to losing your head.
Don’t believe me? Look around you at the Ganpati celebrations that have turned most of our streets into colourful processions of song, dance and faith. Lord Ganesh, though the son of a man and woman, has an elephant head placed firmly on his shoulders.
You probably haven’t wondered why he sports the head of a tusker, because you heard the story growing up. But unlike the elephant, whose large hippocampus ensures it doesn’t easily forget, you no longer remember the lesson.
The story goes that when Lord Ganesh failed to recognise his own father (Lord Shiva), his head was cut off. An angry mother and wife (Goddess Parvati) then threatened, in true hell-hath-no-fury style, to cause unprecedented destruction unless her son was brought back to life. The dutiful husband and remorseful father then quickly picked up an elephant head and placed it on his son’s body; to bring him back to life, but also so that the larger cerebral cortex enables him to ‘think bigger’ in the future before spurning the divine.
Even though Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated each year with bursting fervour, I am sad to announce that we have all, as a collective, lost our minds, even if our heads are intact. We neglect our magnificent elephants day after day.
It is not enough to worship the God if the animal that is believed to have sacrificed its life for Him is languishing. The elephant population is fast declining as humans spread their civilisation, destroying the pachyderm’s habitats. Poaching for ivory, meat and hide is still on the rise, but our love for elephants, sadly, doesn’t even come close to that for the cow, for instance.
A recent survey found that there are less than 300,000 elephants left in the world. About 27,000 of these reside in India, where a gang reportedly killed more than 40 elephants in 2017 alone, but we don’t see any protection units out in full force here.
27,000 also happens to be the approximate number of members who have come together in India to form a federation of cow protectors. This army is self-entrusted to protect the Indian cattle population, which, at last count in the 2012 Livestock Census, was 191 million. Holy cow, indeed.
In India, home to a large percentage of Asia’s elephants, we don’t treat our tuskers with even half the love and respect we shower on our favourite ‘Baby God’. Ironically, temple elephants are often chained to the same spot for their entire lifetime (ranging close to 50 years). During festivals, while our revered idols sit comfortably in our homes, offered infinite varieties of modak and other favourites, these temple elephants have to work long hours every day of the week, standing in the blazing sun with noise and commotion all around. Once that’s over, it’s another blistering walk to the next festival. The less said about these big, friendly giants (ab)used in the circus, the better.
We sing songs about Ganpati being our favourite visitor, imploring him to come again next year, but there will come a time when the only elephants we see will be made of Plaster of Paris, their remnants lining the shores of every water body. This makes the water highly toxic, disturbing the overall ecosystem to which our beloved real-life Ganpati belongs. It seems that as we lay our idols in water, we drown with it any love this festival inspires.
The Asian elephant is now on the IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species, and though several government and NGO-led initiatives are doing great work to conserve the dying species, we must all become haathi rakshaks, too. Our beloved remover of obstacles is facing a serious crisis and the onus is on us to repay the favour.
It’s Ganesh Chaturthi, so it’s likely that there is an elephant in the room. It’s time to save it.
The author is a development professional and former journalist who can’t stop putting thoughts down on e-paper.