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Indian Elephant Who Killed Tourist Sentenced to Hard Labor
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| Godapani
“is very gentle and no-nonsense type of an elephant”
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KAZIRANGA,
India, May 21 (News Agencies) - Two-and-a-half years after he killed
an American tourist and gored a fellow elephant to death, 53-year-old
tusker Godapani is still being put to hard work at one of India's best
known national parks.
Looking
tired at the end of a long day of mundane duties, the three-meter
(10-foot) tall bull is no longer able to bear his own weight, dropping
to the ground the moment his duty hours are over.
A
fateful fit of anger on November 17, 1999 cost Godapani his cozy
former job: carrying visitors four times a day around Kaziranga
National Park in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.
Instead
he has been put on a rigorous drill of warding off poachers and wild
elephants and delivering supplies to isolated staff.
A
split-second of anger was Godapani's undoing. Early in the morning he
and six other tame elephants were in the middle of the park, where
visitors rode on their backs to see the wildlife at close quarters.
Suddenly
Godapani went berserk and killed Mary Mead Bumder, an 80-year-old
tourist from Boston who was riding another elephant about a meter
(yard) away.
The
enraged tusker then gored the tuskless male elephant hired by Bumder,
tearing apart its stomach.
Godapani
had been carrying tourists around the park since 1972 without any
abnormal incident and had been considered the most noble of the 45
elephants the park authorities employ for tourists.
"Godapani
no longer takes visitors on his back," said N.K. Vasu, the park
warden.
"Instead
we are using him for carrying out security patrol inside the park, to
drive away wild elephant herds, and also utilizing him to carry
rations to forest guards in camps located deep inside the
sanctuary."
After
the tragedy, Godapani was chained for days at a remote forest camp
with his keeper Mahendra Karmakar, who kept a close watch on his
behavior.
The
keeper believes Godapani shed tears of repentance, not eating a morsel
of food then.
After
some weeks, Karmakar again rode Godapani and still does so.
"Today
Godapani is absolutely normal and does his job with utmost sincerity.
I don't know what led him to turn violent that day," Karmakar
said.
"He
is still the best tame elephant in the park with his tall stature and
majestic look scaring even wild herds. Otherwise he is very gentle and
no-nonsense type of an elephant."
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