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Last elephant march comes to an end in Kerala

Thirty-odd bejewelled tuskers lined up to re-enact the famous Thrissur pooram (festival) at the Chitranjali studio complex near Thiruvanathapuram on Tuesday evening, marking the conclusion of the Great Elephant March.

Hundreds of foreign tourists and locals witnessed the tenth and last edition of the march, a four-day elephant parade covering four tourist destinations in Kerala.

Special elephant rides were organised for foreign tourists at the Ashoka Beach Resort and Guest House at Kovalam.

This year's march began on January 9 in Thrissur with an elephant parade participated by 108 caparisoned tuskers. It was followed by similar activities at Kochi and Alappuzha.

This march assumed significance as the Kerala tourism department, under pressure from foreign tourists and animal rights activists against the atrocities meted out to elephants, announced its decision to discontinue it from this year.

Tourism department sources said there were several factors that contributed to the discontinuation of the great elephant march. These included the growing apathy of foreign tourists to artificial festivals, their changing preference from package tour to individual tours and the feeling among many tourists that the march amounted to cruelty to elephants.

Though the package was not expected to generate profit, it was hoped to break-even after a few years. However, it continued to remain in the red with an income of Rs 925,000 as against an expenditure of more than Rs 2.8 million last year, the sources added.

In connection with the march, the department provided a host of holiday activities -- riding tuskers, feeding them, witnessing snake boat races, orchestrated elephant pageants, cultural and martial art performances, spectacular firework displays and exotic traditional cuisine.

Since 1990, the annual growth in the arrival of foreign tourists in the state was about 15 per cent, which was above the national average growth in foreign tourism. The arrival of foreign tourists to the state had increased from one million in 1990 to four million last year.

The number of domestic tourists grew from about 40,000 to 180,000 during the same period, the sources added.

UNI

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