Elephantine Dust Bath

It was a balmy winter afternoon in December 2009. I had taken my sister's daughters to the Delhi Zoo. Although the girls had enjoyed most of the other cages too, this particular scene freaked them out completely.

Specially, the younger one, all of three, had never seen anything like this. Of course, thanks to exposure right from the 'E for Elephant' to the likes of Discovery and NatGeo channels, she could easily identify: "Ha ... elephant."


To which her elder sister quickly added, "No, it is a baby elephant."


At that time, the elephant was coming from the rear of the enclosure to the front, in full public glare. Lazily roaming, trying to trick its mahout or may be playing with him.  


The real fun began when the pachyderm actually reached a cement-concrete mushroom obviously erected as a shade for the animal. With its trunk, the elephant started clearing the ground below raising thick clouds of dust.

But the ultimate was when the elephant sprinkled liberal amounts of dust on itself with the upturned trunk. It was a scene straight out of the Discovery or Nat Geo channel for the girls. And, along with them, we too watched fascinated as the elephant continued to amuse onlookers with its antics. Not that it was aware of the enthusiastic public.

At times, it took similar dust showers in a row then it would scratch its back to the cement pole of the mushroom. Elephants are known to use the trunk for everything, be it picking up a blade of grass to drinking water to even plucking up a large tree.

So this was no exception. Here the baby was using its trunk to pick and blow dust on to themselves. Perhaps this dust coating helps them with something.   

Now, it is being said that the zoo elephants are slated to be sent to the wildlife sanctuaries following some government order. Wildlife enthusiasts say it is a proper step and organisations like PETA etc are just too happy with the thought.

But I feel, for the urban children, places like the zoo are the only getaways from the urbane jungles. The rate at which animals are being killed and poached by man, zoos could be the answers for those missing from the wild. So there has to be a debate, I guess: Do these elephants really need to be sent to the sanctuaries?