Olympic torch relay ~ juma, the Amazon jaguar gets killed !

Humans desire ceremonies ~ in that insatiable wish, they make every others a pawn ! -  just to showcase and celebrate !

Manaus, is the capital city of the state of Amazonas in the North Region of Brazil. It is situated at the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers and is the most populous city of Amazonas.  The city was founded in 1693–94 as the Fort of São José do Rio Negro,  elevated to a town in 1832 with the name of "Manaus", an altered spelling of the indigenous Manaós peoples.  Manaus is located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, and access to the city is primarily by boat or airplane. This isolation helped preserve both the nature as well as the culture of the city.

The 2016 Summer Olympics, simply Rio 2016, is a major international multi-sport event in the tradition of the Olympic Games due to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Record numbers of countries are participating in a record number of sports. More than 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, are scheduled to take part.   The host city of Rio de Janeiro was announced at the 121^st  IOC Session held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in  2009. Rio will become the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics.

The Olympic torch relay is the ceremonial relaying of the Olympic Flame from Olympia, Greece, to the site of an Olympic Games. It was first performed at the 1936 Berlin Games, and has taken place prior to every Games since.  This year too, this is happening, after being lit in Olympia, Greece,  travel to  Athens, travel in Brazilian journey visiting more than 300 Brazilian cities, including all 26 state capitals and the Federal District – and this relay is in news for tragic reasons !

The name of the Olympic mascot pays tribute to Brazilian musician Vinicius de Moraes. Vinicius is a mix of different Brazilian animals. His design takes inspiration from pop culture, as well as video game and animation characters. Alongside his Paralympic Games colleague, Vinicius represents the diversity of the Brazilian people and culture, as well as its exuberant nature.

Now to the news ~  an  Amazon jaguar has been shot dead by the Brazilian army after participating as a 'mascot' for an Olympic torch ceremony in Manaus. During the event the female jaguar - called Juma - was just yards away from the lighting of the Olympic torch, where she was held by a chain around her neck. Following the event she was taken to her zoo cage on a truck but managed to escape. A team of vets tried to recapture Juma by firing tranquilizers but they failed to take immediate effect and she reportedly came close to attacking a soldier. The Amazon Military Command - whose symbol is a jaguar - said the animal was shot as a 'safety procedure' to 'protect the soldier'.

The incident happened yesterday after the Olympic torch passed through the jungle city, where England played Italy in the 2014 World Cup. Juma was a jaguar at CIGS zoo, which is part of the army's jungle warfare-training centre and where many of the animals have been captured by soldiers on patrol. A guest who attended the event said: 'The jaguar was in a secluded spot, but everyone took pictures with her. 'When the event was over, Juma was taken to her cage, which was in a truck. It was then she ran away.'

A statement issued by Brazil's Amazon Military Command said: 'Efforts were made to capture the animal by firing tranquilizers. But even though the animal was hit, it still advanced towards a soldier that was stationed nearby. 'As a safety procedure and aiming to protect the soldier and the handlers, a pistol was used to shoot the animal. She died at the scene.' An inquiry has now been launched by the Amazon Institute of Environmental who said it had not given permission for Juma to be used at the event.

It had given permission for another jaguar, Simba, to go show at the event. She was held elsewhere on the courtyard by members of the army.  A spokesman for the agency said the Brazilian army had been asked for an official explanation into the death of Juma and the reason she was 'exposed to the Olympic torch event without authorisation'. If the army is found to have breached environmental regulations it could be fined between £600 and £60,000. The shooting of the jaguar was immediately met by an outpouring of anger on social media, with people accusing the army of acting 'irresponsibly' and incompetently'.

The jaguar is already an endangered species in the Americas, with a 30 per cent reduction over the same number of years.  .. meanwhile, humans are engrossed in ceremonies !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

22^nd June 2016.

Coimbatore tusker - Madukkarai Maharaja is no more !!

Elephants attract me ~ sadly, not all news on elephants is good !  I have posted many a times on my love for that majestic beautiful tusker named “Azhwar” and how the locals cried when it passed away.

Do not remember or know its age when it died peacefully.  Nat Geo reports that for African elephants, the median life span is 17 years for zoo-born females, compared to 56 years in the Amboseli National Park population. For Asian elephants, the results are "much more worrying because they are the rarer of the two species." Zoo females only live 19 years—about half the life span of the Myanmar timber elephants, which, on average, survive until 42.  It is stated that Asian elephants bred and born in captivity died earlier than those imported into zoos from the wild.

Away  a couple of months ago, Hanako, the oldest elephant in Japan, died at Inokashira Park Zoo in Tokyo.  The female elephant  was 69 years old.  Hanako arrived in Japan shortly after World  war and gave dreams and hopes to children,” Tokyo Gov. Yoichi Masuzoe said in a statement.  It was a gift from Thailand as a symbol of friendship in 1949. After living in Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo for a few years, she was moved to the Inokashira zoo in 1954. Her 69th birthday party was supposed to be held March 21 but was canceled due to poor health.  There was an internet petition sympathizing it to be living a lone life for decades, calling for its movement to Thailand, so that it could live with other elephants, alas, that was not to happen. 

In wild, the loners are roguish.  I have recently posted on the  taming of a wild tusker that had been damaging crops, hurting people and terrorizing many humans.   It was a big operation, Kumkis -  Kaleem, Sujai and Pari were brought to the spot to make the wild tusker board the Forest Department vehicle. With the help of the kumkis, forest staff tied a thick rope across the tusker’s neck and legs. The kumkis struggled hard, goaded the tusker into the vehicle.  With a large crowd of locals watching, the animals captured. The forest officials were elated after the safe capture.   The elephant named as Madhukkarai Maharaj,  was intended to be trained to become another ‘kumki’.  This Deccan Chronicle photo shows the ‘rogue elephant’ on a truck and am surprised with the people standing so close to it !

That was not to be ~  the wild tusker nicknamed Madukkarai Maharaj trapped by the Forest Department in Coimbatore in the small hours of Sunday breathed its last on Tuesday evening at the Varagliar elephant camp. Officials said that the cause of death could be ascertained only after conducting a post-mortem. After it was ‘trapped’, the tusker was lodged inside a ‘kraal’, a cage made of iron beams and wooden logs at the camp in Anamalai Tiger Reserve. Till Monday night, despite having been administered an antidote against the tranquilliser, the tusker was said to be in a slightly sedated condition.

On Tuesday, the tusker is said to have made efforts to break out of the kraal. In the process, it is suspected to have sustained head injuries and died. ‘Maharaj’ is the second elephant to die in Coimbatore district in as many days. On Monday, a lactating female elephant was fatally knocked down by a train near Madukkarai.

The death prompted wildlife enthusiasts to question some aspects of the capture and the operation, calling it a  great setback to conservation efforts given the unfavourable male-female elephant population ratio of 1:25.  However, the coordinator of WWF is quoted as saying that tranquilising method should not be blamed as there are no other alternative methods for capturing the wild animal. 

Sad !

S. Sampathkumar

22^nd June 2016.

Life best race is not run by Bolt, Ben Johnson, Flo-jo or ... but by children !!

Athletics is interesting.   The Sprint race or 100m dash is one which is most charming. It will be all over in less than 10 secs and more replays would only reveal the actual way it finished. The video slow mo and guns would exactly pin point who actually won and the timing with which they finished – perhaps not in all races.  We have read this story many a times, yet when it happens, it makes feel happy.

When Seoul Olympics was on air live in 1988, the heart throb was Ben Johnson, born in Jamaica but running for Canada – one of the firsts to break the 10 sec barrier.  My favourite writer Sujatha wrote a novel in Kumudam titled ’10 second mutham’ – a story of an Indian female athlete who is trained to break the barrier of 10 seconds and her emotional relationship with the coach formed the nucleus of that story.  It was indeed thrilling watch to watch Ben Johson finish with 9.79 seconds. Actually closer to the finish, he turned his neck to see where his competitors were and started celebrating with a hallmark rise of fingers. He was praised so much and the race would remain etched in one’s memory. It is another matter that he was snatched of the Gold in a few days due to his testing positive for the prohibited drug. From the start he dominated reportedly hitting a max speed of 30 mph (48/3 kmph) and completed the lap in 48 strides.

The same Olympics also showcased - Florence Delorez Griffith Joyner (1959-1998), considered the fastest woman of all time.  Known as "Flo-Jo", Griffith Joyner was the big favourite for the titles in the sprint events at the 1988 Summer Olympics. In the 100-meter final, she ran a wind-assisted 10.54, beating her nearest rival Evelyn Ashford by 0.30 seconds. In the 200 meter semifinal, she set the world record of 21.56 seconds and then she broke this record again in winning in the final by 0.38 seconds with her time of 21.34 seconds.  She also  ran with the 4 × 100 m relay and the 4 × 400 m relay teams.

The 10,000 metres run, longest track event,  is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic and the World Championships.  In 2015, at 15^th  World Athletic Championship in Beijing, Mo Farah defended his title in the 10,000 meters at the world track and field championships furthering the British distance runner’s legacy as one of the all-time greats. In Women’s section, Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya won the gold medal ahead of Ethiopian Gelete Burka in second place – but more news focus was on Molly Huddle, of US, living  on Rhodes island.

American long distance runner Molly Huddle raised her arms triumphantly in the air as she won a bronze medal in the women's 9,999m race at the IAAF World Championships. The only problem for Huddle was that she had another metre to go. The premature celebration was an embarrassing stuff-up for Huddle, who like all the other athletes in the race has trained her entire life to be where she is.   That runner, Huddle's American teammate, Emily Infeld, took advantage of Huddle's nonchalant finish and just barely slipped past her to claim the bronze medal. Infield was out-of-her-mind happy after winning a bronze that, for the previous 9,999 meters of the race, was not hers to win.

Emily Infeld was sneaked in and took the third place medal. Huddle looked utterly shocked - and furious with herself - before mustering the sportsmanship to congratulate Infeld.  Not many blamed her still !!

~ now read this incident in a School in UK.  Primary school children moved parents to tears after linking arms during a sports day race to ensure their friend who has Down's syndrome took home the gold medal. The Year Six boys from Wrawby St Mary's C of E Primary School near Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire, decided to come joint second so that their pal, 11-year-old Rory Kettles, could take the spoils on the day. The pupils had arranged to perform the gesture themselves without any help from adults, and their headteacher said she was delighted with what the children did.

'It promotes what this school is all about - all of our children are very important to us.- said the head teacher.  'Just before the race they asked if it was OK. They had obviously been discussing beforehand. It was so emotional, I was so touched.'  Michelle Drury, whose son Rio took part in the race, captured the heartwarming moment on camera. She said: 'I'm unbelievably proud of what Rio and the boys did. Being their last sports day they decided they wanted their friend Rory to remember his last running race by coming first.

'They all slowed down, put their arms round each other and ran together to make sure they came joint second.' The pupils, who will be going to separate secondary schools in September, have all been schoolmates since reception class. Michelle explained that after the race there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd. She said: 'Everyone at the sports day were crying their eyes out - these kids don't know how amazing they are. 'Rory's mum couldn't believe it, but the boys acted like it wasn't a big deal.'

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

20^th June 2016

News credit & photo : dailymail.co.uk

Mission Madukkarai Maharaj - the taming of the tusker !

Residents of Triplicane will ever remember the great majestic beautiful tusker named “Azhwar”. This was one who probably never misbehaved. This gigantic one would be bathed, decorated with Thiruman on its forehead and would accompany perumal purappadu. At the end of the purappadu have seen Azhwar offering ‘saamaram’ to Perumal and would walk backwards. It used to carry sacred water (Thirumanjana kudam) from the temple tank, being taken in a procession every morning. This extremely kind elephant was a favourite amongst children and grown up – alas, it passed away ! and its successor immediately made people understand how fearsome elephants are ~ in fact, what we see in Temples are no representatives of ones in wild !!!

majestic tusker at Guruvayur

In wild, the loners are roguish.  The rogue elephant of Aberdare Forest was a bull African bush elephant which terrorized several villages in the vicinity of the Aberdare Range in British East Africa in the early twentieth century, destroying crops and killing at least one person. The bull was reportedly so cunning, that it never struck the same village twice.  The Aberdare Range is a 160 km long mountain range of upland, north of Kenya's capital Nairobi.   

Back home, we have the Western Ghats, also known as Sahyadri,  a mountain range that runs parallel to the western coast. Madukkarai is a suburb of Coimbatore city  located on Western ghats.  'Mission Madukkarai Maharaj' eventually turned into one of the biggest operations of the forest division, where not just forest staff numbering about 50 personnel, but police, fire service, revenue and health authorities also participated.  ‘Operation Madukkarai Maharaj’  could be seen reported in all Tamil dailies and in all English media too.  In a 10-hour, night-long operation that was the climax of a week-long pursuit, forest authorities were successful.  It was a daunting task for a team comprising of Chief Conservator, rangers, guards, anti-poaching watchers, tribal youth – don’t let your imaginations run high – it was no Sandalwood poacher – yet a dangerous operation at that. 

It was taming of a wild tusker that had been damaging crops, hurting people and terrorizing many humans.  Around 11.15 pm on Saturday, the tusker entered a human habitation in Madukkarai. A medical team, including forest veterinarian and District Forest Officer  then set on the tranquilisation job. When the elephant was about to return to the forest around 4 am, the forest veterinary team spotted it clearly. After a struggle of 45 minutes, they managed to inject the sedative into its body. As the tusker took refuge in the reserve forest area, anti-poaching watchers prevented it from going deep into the forest.

Meanwhile, kumkis Kaleem, Sujai and Pari were brought to the spot to make the wild tusker board the Forest Department vehicle. With the help of the kumkis, forest staff tied a thick rope across the tusker’s neck and legs. The kumkis struggled hard to goad the tusker into the vehicle.  The wild tusker was then  taken to Kozhi Kamudhi elephant camp at ATR.

The movements were carefully tracked.  First, an anaesthetic was given to keep the animal dizzy. As it is not safe for the elephant to remain in a sedated state for long, we also injected an anti-anaesthetic drug after the relocation process got over,” said Manoharan of the team.  The crop-raiding tusker, which weighs 3,500 kg and is about 20 years old, gave in without much trouble to forest officials after two tranquilliser darts were fired at it. The sedated beast was goaded by kumki elephants to board a truck and sent to the Varakaliyar elephant camp at Top- slip amidst applause by villagers who had gathered to watch the spectacle. The forest officials were elated after the safe capture; in a botched-up operation in 2011, a sedated tusker fell into a deep pit and died.

The rogue tusker has been frequently damaging crops in Madukkarai area for the past three years and had killed two persons, including a forest watcher. Following requests from farmers and the public, Chief Wildlife Warden  on June 8 ordered that the tusker be captured. The details of operation are revealed to be :  A. Periyasamy, who headed the operation, said a combination of Ketamine and Ketamine Xylazine was shot at the tusker on a plain terrain at the Madukkarai Military Camp. Forest veterinarian N.S. Manoharan darted the animal from a distance of about 70 meters using a tranquilizer gun. The elephant then went out of control for about 15 minutes, crossed the Palakkad Road, and reached the reserve forest area where the kumki elephants were ready to corner it. With the help of two kumkis, elephant handlers and trackers tied the Maharaj’s legs with ropes. The bushes near the wild elephant were cleared and a path was prepared using an earthmover to facilitate the elephant’s movement to the truck. A portion of the compound wall of an Electricity Board (Tangedco) office was brought down for the operation.

Thousands had gathered early on Sunday morning to watch the final phase of the operation and the tusker slightly moved away from the path into the nearby bushes close to which people were standing. .. in the end, all is well – as the elephant could well be trained and become another ‘kumki’.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

20^th June 2016

News source : common media  including Indian Express, The Hindu, Times of India.

Photo credit : The Hindu