TB or not TB?

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">Radha is dead. Are Anarkali, Laxmi and Rajkumar safe? While an animal rights organisation and zoo authorities engage in a verbal duel, the three elephants need urgent attention</span><br /><br />The heat and the dust has little effect on them. In the elephant enclosure of the Veermata Jijabai Bhosle Udyan (Byculla zoo), Anarkali and Laxmi, thin and forlorn, listlessly flick earth and straw on their backs.After the death of Radha, will disease claim yet another victim from Mumbai''s zoo? With the female elephant''s death last week at the zoo, reportedly due to Tuberculo-sis (TB), the other elephants in the enclosure could be next in line, fears an animal rights organisation. <br /><br />The plot thickens as zoo authorities and an animals rights organisation tussle over the actual cause of the pachyderm''s death. While PETA officials maintain that Radha died of TB, the zoo maintains that it could be chronic pneumonia. PETA officials have now written a letter to the municipal commissioner stating that the two female elephants (Anarkali and Laxmi) both display a very emaciated body condition and one of them has, in all probability, contracted TB which is known to be highly contagious. <br /><br />Incidentally, the zoo''s four elephants (including the male, Rajkumar) were housed together in one area even after Radha was diagnosed with her condition, and the risk of contagion in such cases is high, points out Anuradha Sawhney, chief functionary PETA India. <br /><br />However, zoo authorities say that Radha''s cause of death has yet to be ascertained. "It is not verified that TB was the cause. The autopsy report says that the death could be due to chronic pneumonia," says Dr M V Wani, Deputy Superintendent of the zoo. "We are awaiting the post mortem reports to verify the cause of death. After that we will test the other elephants and proceed with the necessary precautions." He does admit that both Laxmi and Anarkali are vulnerable to disease given their considerable age, which he puts down to around 45 years. "Laxmi especially, is in a weak condition," he says. <br /><br />However, an April 2004 report by professor Jacob Cheeran, member, steering committee of Project Elephant, Government of India, indicates that one of the elephants ''was very emaciated and the reason could be due to a chronic debilitating disease like TB.'' The health score of the female elephants in the exhaustive physical examination shows their condition as being far from satisfactory. Dr Wani says that the consequent reports on Radha by the Bombay Veterinary College for TB showed negative, but they began Radha''s treatment for ''a T-type disease'' in June, to which she responded well until her death last week. <br /><br />Sawhney points to the difference in Indian and international zoos when it comes to animal welfare. "In the US, all captive elephants testing positive for TB or those who have come in contact with TB are quarantined. Here in Mumbai, they''re all in the same area, thereby increasing the risk of contagion," she says. Dr Wani counters, "We tried isolating Radha, but she appeared agitated and restless as she missed her companions, so we put her back in the enclosure where she could see her group." <br /><br />"The zoo authorities have to provide quick treatment for the elephants and back it up with preventive measures to save the rest," suggests Sawhney. <br /><br />Back at the zoo, Radha''s absence is palpable with the empty padlock. Laxmi and Anarkali might well be mourning the loss. "Reports have indicated that elephants in the wild mourn the death of their tribe — they touch the dead with their trunk," explains Sawhney. "Laxmi, Anarkali and Rajkumar haven''t eaten much in the last few days either." And the Mumbai zoo would perhaps do well to read the smoke signals before they face yet another elephantine loss. <br /><span style="" font-style:="" italic="">vrushali.haldipur@timesgroup.com</span></div> </div>