At the yearly Suwori Harvest Festival in Assam, India, barbaric elephant fighting is the main attraction. Crowds go wild as riders hoist themselves onto elephants’ backs and beat their heads with sticks until the peaceful animals charge. They collide violently until one elephant forces the other out of the fighting ring; the winner is then cruelly branded to mark the “victory.”
Sadly, the abuse goes well beyond the fight itself. Owners starve and confine the elephants to turn them into fighters. Some even attack the animals with iron hooks to alter their gentle personalities and make them more aggressive. Without social interaction, intelligent elephants suffer from mental anguish and a host of physical ailments like tuberculosis and arthritis. Captivity can decrease an elephant’s lifespan by decades.
Last Chance for Animals has relentlessly combatted elephant cruelty in zoos and circuses for over 30 years, and we have zero tolerance for such exploitation of elephants in the name of entertainment.
We urge you to help end this abuse.Write to India’s Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar, to make sure he knows how much damage forced fighting and captivity inflicts on elephants. Tell him that elephant fighting at the Suwori Harvest Festival must stop at once.
Mail to:
SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR
Hon’ble Minister (E, F & CC)(I/C)
6 Kushak Road, New Delhi 110 001
Indian culture counts elephants as sacred, yet the Suwori Harvest Festival has gone unchecked for almost a century. We can’t let this cruelty continue for another hundred years. Write Prakash Javadekar today and make your voice heard.