Elephant abuse in Hampi.

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While in Hampi we heard that there was an elephant called Lakshmi that was bathed in the river daily before being taken to the temple. We had been there the previous day and watched as locals and foreigners alike hand over a coin or small note to Lakshmi and in return get blessed or 'smooched' which is a gentle tap on the head with her trunk. There's another account of her here.

We know how these animals are treated and 'trained' to do the things they do but we thought that her bath time might be pleasant for her but even that is filled with pain and fear.

At first it looked like her 'owner' was giving her face a good scrub with a small brush but I could see she was getting agitated and uncomfortable with this especially when he got close to her eyes. I went closer and saw that she was actually being 'shaved' with a piece of stone. As this stone was without a sharp edge I can only assume her hair was being ripped out. Asian elephants generally have more hair than African. 

I can't find anything about this practice but as their faces are painted I believe this is done to make brushwork easier. 

Lakshmi started getting quite vocal about this so I started filming.......

Ulli and I seemed to be the only ones that were shocked by this. We spoke to some other tourists afterwards and they all thought that nothing wrong had happened and that this was acceptable behaviour.

It left us with heavy hearts and it's something we will report again on when we see such things.

If you are going to a country where elephants live and are tempted to take a ride or similar please look at this page and reconsider. For a country that reveres the elephant as a deity their treatment of this magnificent beast is anything but godly.