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| 90 to 100 year old female elephant, MP, India. newindianexpress.com |
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| ageing eleohant. wisdomofage.net/blog |
Whenever we go to the Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu and, in particular Kerala, it is a great sight to see majestic elephants swaying in their standing position, flapping their long ears and obeying their mahouts. They gently bless the devotees and diligently collect coins or a bill (currency note) with their multi-purpose trunk and hand it over to their master. When they get a skinned coconut, they break the shell as a road roller would crush a hardened clay ball!! Their obeying the master is reminiscent of a Jennie obeying its master in the fairly tales. When such powerful animals catch up with age and become less active and lose all its vigor and is stuck to a restricted space it is sight that no body can entertain. If a female elephant, once active, now has become pretty old and grumpy with no teeth to crush food, severe arthritis and blind in both eyes imagine her daily painful survival. This is exactly the case of a grand old female elephant in the Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh in India.
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| oldest elephant, Vatsala oct.2007metro.co.uk |
Above image; Oldest female elephant 90 to 100 year old Vatsala, Panna Tiger Sanctuary, MP is already wilting under advanced age. Oh, my knees are bothering me
Vatsala, perhaps the oldest surviving elephant in the world, having been active in her life as a sort of a nurse-midwife to pregnant elephants for three decades, is like an age old govt. pensioner, counting her days or months and trusting others to help her out. Now, she is lucky and is being nursed by her grand kids! Surprised?
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| ageing elephant slideshare.net/ |
This 90 to 100 years old animal is being well taken care of by the herd, that she took care of when she was young and energetic, according to reserve officials. May we conclude it is a humble way to convey gratitude to their grandma? Such expression of love and care is fast disappearing among us. We, the humans, have to take a cue from these young herd of grateful elephants who are gentle to the helpless old elephant. It is quite natural Vatsala gets grouchy when her arthritis flares up and gives her pain. Dr. Sanjeev Gupta of the Panna Tiger Reserve, said, ‘She is kind with the calves but is the first to give them a ticking off when they over-step the mark.’
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| smeltzercartoons.com |
Recently in Feb. 2020, this old female elephant became blind due to age factor. According to Dr. Sanjiv Gupta, Reserve's Vet, ....''her blindness is caused by incurable cataract and her digestive system too has collapsed, forcing us to keep her in the sickbay,” The herd of young elephants taking care of their ‘daadi’ (granny), include Bapu, born in 2017; Manya , born in 2011; Prahlad (2012), and others and Vatsala, through their touch identifies them. Surely, she is not only the pride of Panna Tiger Reserve, but also of India.
https://metro.co.uk/2007/10/23/oldest-elephant-a-grouchy-old-woman-381738/?ito=cbsharehttps://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/feb/20/nurse-elephant-at-panna-reserve-goes-blind-her-grandkids-now-care-for-her-2105967.html