Gajraj, The Circus Elephant

Hello, I am Gajraj, an Asian elephant. I was born to member of an elephant herd in a forest reserve known as Kaziranga National Park in Assam. The herd in which I was born had nearly sixty elephants and my birth made it sixty-one. Elephants roam with their mothers wherever they go till six years old. Once when I was very young, our herd entered the human habitat outside Kaziranga. For the first time ever I saw humans. When they were throwing fire at us I got very frightened it was same as my mother told that humans are very dangerous and fire is there main weapon .Since then I used to listen to my mother, whatever she said.

In one monsoon when Kaziranga got flooded all types of animals including our herd of elephants went up the hills in North of Kaziranga. It was night time, all the elephants were grazing but to protect me from rain, my mother was standing beside me under a tree. Then suddenly there was a loud crash and my mother fell dead. All other elephants ran away without looking for me. Then there suddenly a dart came and hit me and I fell unconscious. When I woke up, I was in a dark gloomy room which was actually the truck.

At last when I came out, I saw that the poachers had brought me to a place full of humans which they were calling circus. There I was put into an enclosure. Though It was big, it was not so much pleasure to live in it as in the forest. I was not tortured at first as I was a calf but I was also not not fed well. I began to grow up and then I was started torturing mentally and physically by the ring master and also forced to perform in front of people. All the people clapped but they did not know, how I was tortured. I was not well fed and I did not have power and energy to perform but still I was tortured. There were many other elephants who were also tortured like me. Once I broke my leg and a doctor whom they called vet told that I could not perform any more due to my swollen joint. Then I was sold to a group of men who said they were saints but used to hurt me with some sticks with spikes but they told people that it was some holy things. I was suffering from swollen joints but they did not give me rest. At night during storm or rain also, I was tied to a tree in a field.

 One night when all of the bad men were in their house, a group of men and police came with a truck known as animal ambulance. They fed me bananas and then they tried to take me to that truck. When I saw that dark gloomy room in the truck when they opened it to put me in, I remembered of my childhood and got scared and resisted to go, but they were throwing bananas and as I was not well fed, I could not control myself and went towards that and step by step entered the truck. I was in that truck and when I got out of the truck, it was mid-day. They took me in and named me Gajraj. They now came with a machine, which they called an X-RAY machine and put it below my swollen leg, then they took saw something and discussed about something. They were looking very worried. Then they took me to a pool which they called a foot bathing pool.

At first I was getting scared to go in it but, when I went I felt comfort in my fractured leg. Then they took me into a big enclosure. I was at first scared to see the enclosure and remembered about the circus. But when I went in I saw there was another elephant whom the people called Ravi. At first I thought he would not like me but when I went in I saw he was putting his trunk on my trunk which elephants do when they like each other. We soon became friends. And all the humans were friendly there and we were well fed. I now live here in the elephant rescue center in Agra. I am very happy and staying with my other friends. I hear about some of the other elephants being released to the wild.I don't know when I would also be released to the wild.