Elephants to get microchip licences: Oct 4,2006; Times Of India, Mumbai

Elephants to get microchip licences

Owners Will Be Asked To Take Unlicensed Tuskers Out Of Mumbai
Archana Sharma I TNN

Mumbai: Elephants in Mumbai will soon have a chip on their shoulders. Within
three months, all licensed elephants will be implanted with a microchip
behind their left ear. This will help identify all the unlicensed animals as
also any new ones brought into the city.

    The chip would work better than a licence as mahouts currently show one
licence to illegally keep as many as three elephants at a time, said deputy
chief conservator, Thane forest division, Sarfaraz Khan. The owners of
unlicensed elephants will be asked to immediately take their animals out of
the city.

    The decision has been taken by the state forest department Thane
division, which is in charge of wildlife in Mumbai. Khan told TOI that he
has also written to wildlife authorities in Bihar requesting them not to
issue transit passes to those who want to take elephants to Mumbai.

    The recent, painful death of Laxmi has brought into focus how elephant
owners illegally, and sometimes cruelly, use the animals to earn money. Less
than two weeks ago, Laxmi was knocked down by a speeding tanker on the
Sion-Trombay road.

    Dr Kishor Batwe, wildlife veterinarian with the Borivli national park,
has taken up the task of microchipping the animals with the help of the
Thane forest division. Batwe, who has studied elephant management at Kerala
University, said implanting the chip is a minor procedure, but restraining
the animal is a gigantic task. “We will take one case at a time. In two to
three months, it should be over.”

    The authorities plan to search for the animals as well as approach
elephant owners.

    Because elephant owners keep multiple animals on one licence, the exact
number of elephants in the city is also not known. The forest department
says that there are only seven, whereas the Bombay Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the number could be double that. Khan
said, “That’s why we have decided to microchip all the elephants with legal
licences.”

    BSPCA’s Dr Ashish Sutar, who attended to Laxmi, said microchipping would
effectively restrain the entry of elephants into the city and the existing
elephants would be controllable. “This is what the NGOs have been demanding,”
he said.

    JUMBO SCAN

    A microchip is an identifying integrated circuit placed under the skin
of the animal. The chips are about the size of a large grain of rice. The
scanner reads the radio frequency ID unique to every animal. The cost of one
chip is Rs 350, but the scanner, which will read all the chips, is expensive
at Rs 20,000.

OUT AND ABOUT: This elephant called Ramu was seen begging in the busy Sector
17 in Vashi, Navi Mumbai, on Dussera on Monday. When TOI questioned the
mahout, he was evasive and merely said the elephant had come from Uttar
Pradesh. Following the recent death of Laxmi, who was hit by a speeding
truck in Chembur, animal activists have demanded that elephants not be
allowed into cities, where they are forced to beg or join processions. PAWS
and BSPCA have said they will file complaints wherever they see elephants
treated cruelly, with a view to finally filing a PIL in court. Peta’s
Anuradha Sawhney said poachers kidnap baby elephants from forests, even
though the animals are protected by law

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