We’ve all seen the image of elephants bowing down to pay their respects to various deities. We spoke to Rally for Animal Rights and Environment (RARE) Founder and animal rights activist Maneesha Arachchige who shared her thoughts on the matter. Therefore, he said that he feels it is futile to push for the complete abolition of the use of elephants in these cultural activities. However, what can be done, he went on, is to encourage the welfare of these animals held in captivity and to create awareness around the fact that elephants are in fact wild animals and they are not at all domesticated. “Domestication must happen over generations and elephants remain wild beasts.”Therefore, regardless of these practices being age-old traditions, they are unnatural to these wild animals and we as humans are making them do it.

Source: The Nation September 21, 2021 18:45 UTC