Elephant War Against Bharat
In ancient India, many thousand battles were waged using elephants to preserve our Culture and Dharma.
Today, certain vested interests are using the same elephants to wage a war against India’s Culture. Let me explain.
Long back I had made a video of how some vested interests are trying to set a narrative about the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore being on an Elephant corridor and busted it with proofs.
Well, a set of hyena-activists (a term made popular by Isha Foundation recently) have started the same spin again, this time in the context of an elephant death in a private farmer’s land about 5 Kms from where Isha is.
Here is an earlier post on this … https://bigfundu.medium.com/yet-another-elephant-death-fake-environmentalism-70a737f96351
Today, one of the hyenas tweeted using an old video that Isha folks chased the elephant towards a live electric fence.
I had explained in my earlier video itself about it. But let’s take it piece by piece and see.
Nobody Chases Elephants
In this old video, there are a few elephants seen running near Isha Yoga Center. This does not mean they were chased.
Elephants are not like cows or goats which you can chase. They can even turn around and attack if some people chase them.
There is also no denying that this area is near Isha Center. But it can also be clearly seen that there is nobody really chasing those elephants. People are simply seen excited. That somebody even took this video on mobile shows how much local people are used to these sightings.
Not a Herd
Secondly, if one knows anything about elephants, one would know that elephants are herd beings. They always move in a group. Sightings of elephants near Isha have not been like a big herd of elephants. These are just stray elephants which have moved away from a herd.
False News
Third, even in the latest incident of an elephant that died some 5 kms from Isha Center, these fake activists tried to frame that Isha folks only chased the elephant. There has been no proof for it and even the District Forest Officer clarified that.
The DFO Venkatesh has categorically denied that any local residents or people in the ashram could have chased the elephant.
“Driving away elephants is done only by our teams after careful assessment. Local people don’t get involved in the driving operations since they know that the elephants can come back and attack them,” he said.
Why Rake This Up Again?
Basically, these people are trying to cement a baseless allegation on the Isha Foundation that Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore is in an Elephant Corridor. However, this allegation has been disproved many times over it is not so.
Clear proofs for this are available at: http://bit.ly/ElephantCorridor
There is one elephant corridor near Isha and that is in the Nilgiris district. Here is a High court order to stop / destroy constructions on that corridor.
The list of all the elephant corridors in India is presented in the ‘Right Of Passage’ document.
https://www.wti.org.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/pub_right_of_passage-1.pdf
Anybody who can simply go through these will know the truth about linking a non-existent elephant corridor and Isha.
Why Elephants Come In That Area?
OK, the next logical question that comes to mind is that if Isha is not an elephant corridor, why are such elephants seen near the Isha Center at times?
This has been answered by ‘real’ environmentalists and forest officials many times over.
The lands near Isha Foundation have been agricultural lands, with primarily sugarcane, tamarind and banana plantations. All of these are very attractive for elephants as sources of food. Elephants come habitually when there is a shortage of food and water in the forest.
Where traditional farmers practised rain-fed subsistence agriculture for a few months in a year, today, farmers have assured irrigation through borewells and tubewells. So, many farmers have turned to growing crops such as sugarcane, banana and arecanut that bring better income. So, food for elephants in the area is one main reason.
In an article in Hindu (https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/tamil-nadu/ensure-right-of-passage-to-jumbos-in-forest-division-hc/article33515265.ece/), the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Mr. Abbas went on to state that in Coimbatore forest division, the elephants move from Kerala towards the forests in the Nilgiris eastern slopes every year.
“The forest is contiguous and it is not a corridor at all as per the true meaning.”
“During such migration, the elephants tend to stray out attracted by juicy horticultural/agricultural crops grown in the vicinity,” he said and submitted data of the number of human and elephant deaths recorded in the last nine years.
He also agreed that mushrooming of brick kilns in the vicinity of the forest area had some adverse effect on the wildlife and the environment. He said elephants used to stray into human habitations on being attracted towards palmyra used in the brick kilns. He said the kilns had now stopped using palmyra.
Finally, the sighting of elephants near Isha Center have not been like a big herd — they are just stray elephants which have moved away from a herd. Such stray elephants have been seen in almost all parts of Coimbatore, not only near the Isha Center.
Elephants All Over Coimbatore
There is lot of documented media reports about elephants coming into the Coimbatore city through the years.
Here is an article from India today citing a wild elephant straying into one of the main residential areas of Coimbatore city in 2017.
Another article shows how an elephant herd came onto a busy highway near Coimbatore in 2019 … It even went viral on Twitter.
One more such incident reported near Coimbatore in 2019.
The last article also states clearly that it was Forest Officials who chased the tuskers from that area. So, this chasing of elephants narrative by the activists is a big BS to cheat people who are ignorant.
In fact, since 2015 and recently in 2018 and 2019, farmers in Coimbatore had complained to district authorities to compensate them for the crops being damaged due to the elephant menace.
Now considering all these incidents of stray elephants coming to different areas of Coimbatore, is one going to take a stand that whole of Coimbatore is elephant corridor and entire district has to be evacuated?
Is that even practical?
What Does Isha Foundation Say About This?
The Isha Foundation has also published all these proofs that it’s not in elephant corridor on its website itself. Several instances in the past, during interviews also their representatives have refuted these allegations.
Why Isha Is Being Targeted?
Next question is, why is that Isha alone is being targeted when such sightings of elephants are all over Coimbatore?
If being in a big area is the concern, know that Isha Foundation is on a 150 acre area whereas a huge organization called ‘Karunya’ is in a much deeper area over a much larger area of 700 acres.
In fact, there are maps that show elephant corridors through the Karunya nagar area.
But none, not one, of these activists will even talk about it.
Their concern is not for elephants. They do not want anything related to Bharat & its spiritual culture standing up tall.
Most lies and allegations on Isha are because of these two main reasons:
- They are spreading Indian Culture and Yoga big time in Tamilnadu
- They clearly have stopped religious conversions & nefarious activities in that area
Thousands of people throng the AdiYogi statue set up by Isha and hundreds of people visit the Dhyanalinga & learn Yoga practices at Isha daily.
Make no mistake.
This is a war on Dharma by the fake activists in Tamilnadu who can’t stand all this cultural revival.
This war can be won only if we all stand up for truth and not let vested interests take control of the narrative.
