ELEPHANT-KERALA.COM
Captive Elephants
Kerala is a coastal state located in the south India. The captive elephant population is approximately equal to 600. 500 of them are tuskers (bulls). Tuskers are used for the processions and festivals.In it 160 are owned by temples and more than 400 are owned by private individuals. Guruvayur Devaswom has 44 tuskers and 6 females kept at Punnathur Kotta, the largest elephant sanctuary in Asia. The largest individual owner of Kerala is one Mr. Parameswaran of Mangalamkunnu village Palakkadu has 14 elephants. He and his brother Haridas has a great craze for elephants and buy one elephant every two year. They engaged into the business in 1978.
Kerala had started the electronic registering of the elephants under captivity through implanting 10 digit microchip ID cards in their body. The chip is implanted in elephant's skin behind the left ear with the help of a syringe. Data related to the elephant Height, growth in size, length of tusks and trunk and overall state of health gathered from its owner and mahout is recorded in the microchip. This is used for tracking the elephant and for further documentation. This will help to minimize the cruelty towards the elephants.
In Kerala elephants are purchased from Bihar, West Bengal and the North East.
The heaviest tusk ever known belonged the Columbian mammoth these weighed 226kg!
The other creature to have ivory teeth is the Walrus ( large sea animal living in the Arctic region).