Deutsche Presse-Agentur
April 30, 2005, Saturday
11:17:39 Central European Time

Campaign saves Indian elephant from Armenian zoo

New Delhi

After a four-month campaign by Indian animal lovers, the government
relented and said it would not gift a baby elephant to Armenia, it
was reported Saturday.

The federal government had promised to send a six-year-old elephant,
named Veda, to join the only male elephant in Armenia’s zoo, the
Hindu newspaper reported.

Veda was born in the Bannerghatta national park outside the southern
Indian city of Bangalore, and locals complained she would not survive
the freezing temperatures of Armenia.

Animal lovers said it would be cruel to separate baby Veda from her
grandmother Suvarna, mother Vanita, brother Gokula and sister Gowri,
as elephants are very social animals.

They wrote letters to Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh and held protests outside the park that is
Veda’s home. Their campaign was supported by the Britain-based Born
Free Foundation.

On Friday, the government relented and said Veda could stay with her
family in Bangalore. School children and animal rights activists
celebrated at the park, distributed sweets and offered prayers at a
local temple.

They held banners that said, “Elephantine thanks to the PM” and “Veda
saved from a cruel fate”.

In 1999, Armenian officials asked the Indian government for a female
elephant for their lone male originally from Moscow. In 2003, then
Indian premier Atal Behari Vajpayee promised them an elephant during
his visit to Armenia.

The lone 15-year-old elephant was also from India and very lonely in
the Armenian zoo. “Maybe he should be brought back to India,” said
animal rights activist Suparna Baksi-Ganguly, who led the campaign
for Veda. dpa ar sc