AGARTALA, JAN 1: Tripura's professional elephant owners are now finding it difficult to save their animals from starvation over and above their own survival.With a Supreme Court order banning movement of timber in the North East, it is not possible for the owners to maintain the giant elephants, says Rupendra Pal of Sonamura village of West Tripura district.He has placed two advertisements in local news papers seeking customers for his lone elephant but he is yet to get a positive response. "I went to give an ad in an English paper, so that some one from another state buys my elephant," Rupendra told PTI.About 100 elephants engaged in carrying logs from different terrains and deep forest have been rendered idle and their owners, finding it difficult to feed them, are asking the forest department to buy them.The state government had requested the Union Forest and Environment Ministry to move the Supreme Court to reconsider the ban in view of the economic dislocation it had caused to the entireregion."The ban is continuing and we have not received any information from the Union Government, Forest Minister Narayan Rupini said.According to Rupendra, his elephant was earning about rupees one thousand per day and getting work for more than 20 days in the month. With an expenditure of about Rs 4000 per month for his upkeep, it is not possible for Rupendra to meet the expenditure now. "Although the elephant earned a lot for us, how long can I feed it without any money," says Rupendra in tears. "Even then, I have been feeding the animal for more than one and half years".Interestingly some owners marched their elephants in an unique procession in Kailasahar - the district headquarters town of north Tripura - with placards dangling around their trunks appealing for jobs last year. "We are jobless, give us jobs. We are hungry, give us food", the placards read.It is nor only elephant owners who are threatened. An estimated 20,000 families who were used to earn their living by collecting timberand bamboo for making incense sticks are also out of job because of the court order.
