A 14-year-old elephant whose abuse outside a Hindu temple inspired a protest by Paul McCartney is still living in horrific conditions, with shackles around his legs and regular beatings, an animal rights group said on Friday.
The Indian government had ordered the elephant, named Sunder, returned to the wild after McCartney highlighted the animal’s plight during a 2012 trip to India.
Instead, a local politician took Sunder home and shackled him outside a poultry shed, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said. The group also released a video that it says shows Sunder in December last year, writhing in pain and struggling to stand as a handler strikes him.
The politician, Vinay Kore, could not be reached, but Tara, one of Kore’s servants, confirmed Sunder stays outside the home.
“The elephant is kept at the poultry shed and is healthy and fine,” Tara said by telephone on Friday.
PETA director of veterinary affairs in India Manilal Valliyate said domestically kept elephants face a grim existence in India. Many Hindu temples keep elephants outside their doors to give blessings to visitors, but the animals are often poorly treated.
“The way elephants are kept and treated here in India violates almost all norms,” he said. “Sunder is just one example.”
McCartney was moved by the treatment of Sunder — which means “beautiful” in Hindi — outside Jyotiba Temple in Kolhapur, about 380km south of Mumbai. In July 2012, he wrote to the Indian minister of environment and forests, denouncing the abuse.
“I have seen photographs of young Sunder, the elephant kept alone in a shed at Jyotiba Temple and put in chains with spikes,” McCartney wrote. “I appeal to you to do what is right here and get Sunder post-haste to rehabilitation in the forest.”
A spokesman for McCartney did not immediately return a call for comment.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese