Seven Delhi elephants get micro-chipped
|
|
|
New Delhi, Oct 10 - Seven captive elephants in the Indian capital have been micro-chipped by an NGO as part of efforts to regulate the trafficking and exploitation of the animals.'By micro-chipping the elephants, we can monitor and control the illegal trade and trafficking of captive elephants. Elephant traders and owners resort to capturing elephant calves from the wild and separate them from their herds.' said Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of the NGO Wildlife S.O.S.The micro-chipping was part of the Wildlife Week, which was celebrated during Oct 1-7 by conservationists, animal lovers and state governments across the country to reiterate their commitment to conservation of wildlife.'With this, only four elephants now remain to be micro-chipped out of the total 31 captive elephants in Delhi,' said Vasudha Mehta, communication officer of Wildlife SOS.'The micro-chipping of the elephants was carried out under the guidance of D.M. Shukla, chief wildlife warden and conservator of forests, Delhi. The remaining four elephants will be micro-chipped this week.' Mehta said.S. Kumar, the Wildlife S.O.S veterinarian who has an exceptional record of working with elephants in states like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Kerala, inserted the microchip in the elephants, Vasudha told IANS.Information on each elephant and its owner has also been documented in the chip. As a result, veterinarians can know what disease an elephant has been suffering from. Any new elephants illegally captured from the forests can also be detected.Delhi has 31 captive elephants that are used during religious ceremonies, weddings and other public functions. They had been living in the trans-Yamuna area of Delhi for the past many decades. But last year they had to relocate along with their owners in view of preparations for the 2010 Commonwealth Games to be held in the capital.Micro-chipping is carried out for identification of animals, which involves a unique 12-digit identification tag for each elephant in the form of a transponder or chip.The chip, which is the size of a rice grain, is planted under the subcutaneous layer of skin behind the elephant's ear. The transponder is detected through a special microchip reader, a scanning instrument.The wildlife inspectors who supervised the micro-chipping procedure have instructed the owners to get their elephants examined by the Wildlife S.O.S veterinarian on a periodic basis for any health ailments.'The owners are required to submit to us a quarterly health certificate duly signed by the veterinarian. This would ensure that the animals are not subjected to cruelty and exploitation,' an official said. (c) Indo-Asian News Service
|
|
|
|
|
|
Related News
More than 90 dead in floods in El Salvador Mexico City/San Salvador - At least 90 people were killed as heavy rains prompted mudslides and flooding rivers in El Salvador, rescue workers said Sunday. The rainfall, which was prompted by a cold front and the remainders of Caribbean hurricane Ida...
Storm death toll hits 109 in Vietnam Hanoi - The death toll from Tropical Storm Mirinae in central Vietnam has risen to 109, the country's Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Control reported Friday. The authority said 16 people remained missing, and local media were reporting death ...
Hurricane Ida hits Nicaragua's Caribbean coast - Summary Managua/Miami - Hurricane Ida hit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast with heavy rain Thursday and led to the evacuation of thousands of people, officials said. Civil Defence chief General Mario Perez-Cassar said the authorities were coordinating to send foo...
EXTRA: Hurricane Ida makes landfall on Nicaragua's Caribbean coast Managua - Hurricane Ida hit Nicaragua's Caribbean coast with heavy rain Thursday and led to the evacuation of several villages in the area, Nicaraguan authorities said. General Mario Parez-Cassar, head of the Central American country's Civil Defence,...
Ida becomes a hurricane en route to Nicaragua - Summary Managua/Miami - Tropical Storm Ida became a hurricane as it continued to approach Nicaragua Thursday, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said. Ida - with maximum sustained winds of 120 kilometres per hour with higher gusts - was expected to ma...
Storm death toll in Vietnam rises to 98 Hanoi - The death toll from Tropical Storm Mirinae has risen to 98 in central Vietnam, the country's Steering Committee for Storm and Flood Control said Thursday. The authority said 20 people were missing and it expected the death toll to continue to...
Quake shakes southern Iranian port, 700 injured - Summary Tehran - An earthquake with a magnitude of 4.9 on the Richter scale shook the southern Iranian port town of Bandar Abbas Wednesday and injured at least 700 people, state media reported. The quake occurred in the early morning hours of Wednesday and l...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|