Tourists in Jaipur face threat of zoonotic diseases

JAIPUR: Tourists are endangering their health and safety by interacting with elephants that are not screened for any zoonotic diseases, with no vaccination and treatment records with the mahouts, observed PETA.

A team of four veterinarians assessed the health of elephants and various issues came to light during the inspection.

The overall assessment of 34 elephants at Amber was carried out with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) checklist, 'Asian Elephant Body Condition Index', 'Elephant Physical Examination Record' and ' Elephant Medical History'.

Many serious epidemic diseases are zoonoses that originated in animals. These include rabies, Ebola virus and influenza. In a systematic review of 1,415 pathogens known to infect humans, 61% were zoonotic.
"The owners/mahouts did not have any record of vaccination and treatments carried out in the past for their elephants. They did not maintain vaccination register nor the disease and treatment register," said Dr Manilal Valliyate from PETA.

Here elephants suffering from corneal opacity, cracked nails, swelling, abscesses, injuries caused by ankus or crupper etc. They were not given even the basic necessary treatment," said Dr Manilal Valliyate from PETA.

On enquiry, the elephants' association members informed the inspectors that none of the elephants have been vaccinated against any infectious diseases such as tetanus and rabies which are quite common. "This shows the serious lack of concern for the health and well-being of the elephants and the tourists who come near them. In India, elephants are known to be common carriers of the infectious diseases such as tuberculosis," said Dr Manilal.

Besides, many elephants had severe swellings on their back due to constant chaffing by the heavy metal saddle tied on to seat tourists. Forcing these elephants to work in the steep Amber Fort area in spite of the painful swellings further aggravates the suffering of these elephants.

Many elephants had eye problems such as corneal opacity and cataract. One of the elephants was found to have conjunctivitis. Few elephants were suffering from unilateral blindness (blind by one eye) and partial blindness (poor vision), possibly due to corneal opacity. It is extremely cruel to force blind elephants to work in this manner, observed PETA.

During the inspection it was also found that almost every elephant had fresh wounds or healed lesions on the dorsal base of ears and the trunks indicating the rampant use of metal ankuses to control them. Majority of elephants also had multiple holes in each ear. On enquiring about the same, the elephant association informed that the elephants' ears were pierced in many places to hang decorative items during ceremonial functions.