ELEPHANTS IN KERALA  

Thursday, July 31, 2008









In Kerala elephants are employed in temple rituals and festivals called Utsavas like Thrissur Pooram. There are Poorams which deploy as many as a hundred tuskers. Even a minor Utsava in an upcountry village one or two elephants is a must. So also a traditional welcome to a dignitary is also adorned by the presence of a tusker or many tuskers. Aanayottam (elephant race) Aanayoottu (the traditional feast given to elephants) are traditional practices in Kerala.
The historical and cultural roles played by elephants in Kerala is epitomised by the official emblem of the Government of Kerala, borrowed from the erstwhile Maharaja of Travancore, which depicts two tuskers facing each other, their trunks lifted and joined.
Commercially also elephants used to play an important role in the life of Keralites. With an abundent timber wealth in the Western Ghats, elephants were the chief transportares of timber from the wooded mountain ranges down in to the populous planes. Even now elephants are used to carry timber from areas which are not road-connected.
Domesticated elphants, like humans, have names related to Hindu mythology and land names.

1. RAJAN PADHMANABHAN GANAPATHY
2. THECHIKODAN AND MANGALAAMKUNNU AYYAPPAN

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TUSKS  

The tusks of an elephant are its second upper incisors. Tusks grow continuously; an adult male's tusks will grow about 18 cm an year. Tusks are used to dig for water and roots; to debark trees, to eat the bark; to dig into baobab trees to get at the pulp inside; and to move trees and branches when clearing a path. In addition, they are used for marking trees to establish territory and occasionally as weapons.

Like humans who are typically right- or left-handed, elephants are usually right- or left-tusked. The dominant tusk, called the master tusk, is generally shorter and more rounded at the tip from wear. Both male and female African elephants have large tusks that can reach over 3 m in length and weigh over 90 kg. In the Asian species, only the males have large tusks. Female Asians have tusks which are very small or absent altogether. Asian males can have tusks as long as the much larger Africans, but they are usually much slimmer and lighter; the heaviest recorded is 39 kg (86 lb). The tusk of both species is mostly made of calcium phosphate in the form of apatite. It is also known as ivory, is strongly favoured by artists for its carvability. The desire for elephant ivory has been one of the major factors in the reduction of the world's elephant population.

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Main Physical characteristic-Trunk  

The trunk, is a fusion of the nose and upper lip, elongated and specialized to become the elephant's most important and versatile appendage. African elephants are equipped with two fingerlike projections at the tip of their trunk, while Asians have only one. The elephant's trunk have over forty thousand individual muscles in it, making it sensitive enough to pick up a single blade of grass, yet strong enough to rip the branches off a tree.

 Elephants always use their trunks to tear up their food and then place it in their mouth. They will graze on grass or reach up into trees to grasp leaves, fruit, or entire branches. If the desired food item is too high up, the elephant will wrap its trunk around the tree or branch and shake its food loose or sometimes simply knock the tree down altogether.

 The trunk is also used for drinking. Elephants suck water up into the trunk (up fourteen litres at a time) and then blow it into their mouth. Elephants also inhale water to spray on their body during bathing. On top of this watery coating, the animal will then spray dirt and mud, which act as a protective sunscreen. When swimming, the trunk makes an excellent snorkel.

 This appendage also plays a key role in many social interactions. Familiar elephants will greet each other by entwining their trunks, much like a handshake. They also use them while play-wrestling, caressing during courtship and mother / child interactions, and for dominance displays – a raised trunk can be a warning or threat, while a lowered trunk can be a sign of submission. Elephants can defend themselves very well by flailing their trunk at unwanted intruders or by grasping and flinging them.

 An elephant also relies on its trunk for its highly developed sense of smell. Raising the trunk up in the air and swivelling it from side to side, like a periscope, it can determine the location of friends, enemies, and food sources.





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ASIAN & AFRICAN  


DIFFERENCES BETWEEN AFRICAN AND ASIAN ELEPHANTS

African elephants are distinguished from Asian elephants in several ways, the most noticeable being their ears which are much larger. The African elephant is typically larger than the Asian elephant and has a concave back. Both African males and females have external tusks and are usually less hairy than their Asian cousins.

ASIAN ELEPHANT





AFRICAN ELEPHANT



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CONTENTS  

  • INTRODUCTION
  • GALLERY

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INTRODUCTION  

Introduction

The elephant is the largest land mammal on earth. There are two living species: the African Elephant and the Asian Elephant (also known as the Indian Elephant). Other species have become extinct since the last ice age, the Mammoths being the best-known of these.

The elephant's gestation period is 22 months, the longest of any land animal. At birth it is common for an elephant calf to weigh 120 kilograms. An elephant may live as long as 70 years, sometimes longer. The largest elephant ever recorded was shot in Angola in 1956. This male weighed about 12,000 kilograms (26,000 lb) with a shoulder height of 4.2 metres (14 ft), a metre. The smallest elephants, about the size of a calf or a large pig, were a prehistoric species that lived on the island of Crete during the Pleistocene epoch

The elephant has been an icon for humanity for thousands of years, appearing in cultures across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. They are symbols of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and high intelligence. The word "elephant" has its origins from Greek, meaning "ivory" or "elephant".

Healthy adult elephants have no natural predators, although lions may take calves or weak individuals. They are, however, increasingly threatened by human intrusion and poaching. Once numbering in the millions, the African elephant population has dwindled to between 470,000 and 690,000 individuals. The elephant is now a protected species worldwide, with restrictions in place on capture, domestic use, and trade in products such as ivory.





A domesticated elephant in Kerala, India

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