In the temple courtyard, as Babu waits to be adorned with gold decorations and silver bells and have the Hindu deity hoisted onto his back, he suddenly relieves himself prodigiously. Children watching him giggle. Poor Babu, it has been a long day, standing in a truck travelling from a temple 80km away to come to a Cochin temple to perform. Babu is one of Kerala's 650 captive elephants who work in Hindu temples where their majestic presence is vital for the splendour of a ceremony.
Babu, 45, has been working for 36 years. Retirement is about five years away. His mahout (elephant keeper), Vinod Kumar, commands Babu, now that he is fully dressed with a pretty parasol on his back, to turn around and face the temple. 'He is a hard worker, patient and good-natured,' he says.
On retiring, Babu could find that his owner, who earns a living from hiring him out to temples, no longer wishes to pay for his hugely expensive upkeep - 400kg of fodder, the salaries of three mahouts and medical care. That's a total of HK$5,155 a month in a country where the average monthly salary is HK$760.
Like many temple elephants, he could be neglected, his old-age ailments left unattended, and put out to die, despite a lifetime of being a good hard worker. But now help is at hand if such a melancholy fate should befall loyal workers like Babu.
India's first old-age home for elephants opens next month inside a tranquil forest at Kottur, outside the Kerala state capital Trivandrum, where retired elephants can spend their twilight years in dignity.
There they will be fed, watered, bathed, massaged with large massive pumice stones and coconut husks to keep their blood circulation healthy, given Ayurvedic tonics to keep their bodies toned, and allowed to roam in 200 hectares of woods.
