Better heed the trunk call of nature

It should be a matter of some embarrassment for us that the battle against open defecation as part of Swachh Bharat has been accepted by unexpected quarters — elephants — while human beings persist in their old ways. What better evidence can there be of this fact t han the news that a man engaged in unSwachh activities in the open in Purulia, West Bengal (a state officially resistant to any initiatives launched by the NDA government at the Centre) was literally hauled up by a wild elephant, carried for 50 metres and then unceremoniously dumped by the roadside? Interestingly, an elephant excretes 70 kg of dung daily, but unlike humans, it has not been offered alternate facilities. The upside of this incident, of course, is that the man, his family and other unnerved villagers will hopefully never again seek places other than toilets for their daily dump. Talk about heeding the call of nature.

It is unfortunate, however, that it took an elephant — obviously quite correctly regarded as a wise creature by Indians — to bring about change in a human. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is usually quick to perceive a conspiracy in many happenings in her state. But even she may find it difficult to convince people that the elephant — also the symbol of a political party she is partial to at the moment — had unscrupulous intentions.