By Bappa Majumdar, Reuters
November 6, 2007
KOLKATA, India (Reuters Life!) - A troupe of trained Indian elephants has taken up drama to save their brethren in the wild, performing tear-jerking plays with elaborate death scenes to arouse the sympathy of villagers.
The conservation officials behind the performances hope to defuse a low-level war between dwindling numbers of endangered elephants and growing numbers of humans.
Villagers are increasingly encroaching on forest land, while elephants are increasingly barging into villages, killing dozens of people each year, often by trampling on them.
The villagers' tactics involve building makeshift electric fences from electric pylons around villages, which electrocute elephants on contact. A dozen elephants have been killed in this way in eastern India so far this year, conservationists say.
"The objective of using trained elephants to enact electrocution scenes is to evoke sympathy for their wild friends," said Manindra Biswas, an official from the Forest Department of West Bengal state.
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