Elephant feet

 

No, I am not writing about elephantiasis.  They are already suffering enough and to trouble them further would be a sin. Talking of which the old disease seems to have vanished from our country. Perhaps it is improvements in medical science and lifestyle  that has wiped them off.

I am writing about actual elephant feet. I was visiting a friend’s house in a plantation when at the front entrance I was greeted by some palms planted in pots that were actual elephant feet. My host told me that in one of the plantation companies located in a rural location of the country they were engaged in a losing battle with the elephants. They tried barbed wires around the nursery,  digging shallow pits around the nursery and a few other ideas the Game Department Officers had suggested. But none of them 

worked to the frustration of the managers. As a last resort they were given permission to shoo the elephants with dummy bullets. Even these did not work. 

Then one manager took it upon himself to use live bullets. He was warned that this was a dangerous act and is prohibited. He was reminded that a wounded elephant could go on a rampage and cause serious damage. But his losses were huge and the bosses sitting in the  cool offices in the Federal Capital were harassing him to sort out this menace. He fired four shots  aiming at the head of the elephant. His shots were accurate, found their mark and the elephant dropped dead. A taxidermist at a  museum taught him how to preserve the carcass.  As he wanted only the feet he had the legs sawn off just below the knee and burried the dead animal in a pit he excavated on the fringes of the jungle.  It took him a few weeks to cure the legs for his use. After some painstaking efforts finally the job was completed and he had two flowerpots shaped out from the preserved feet. 

A few weeks after my visit the Game Department acting on a tip off raided my friend’s home and confiscated the prohibited exhibits. My friend suspected me as the informer and has since refused to talk to me.  

He said  it was too much of a coincidence. To add insult to injury the Department displayed the feet at their office indicating that anyone found in possession of artefacts   of endangered species of animals would be prosecuted.

All contents (c) Ganapathy Ramasamy, mynameisgana@blogspot.com

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