Daily routine of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in three management systems of Tamil Nadu, India and its implications for elephant welfare
Open accessAbstract
Under natural conditions elephants move extensively, experience complex physical, and social environments and engage in diverse activities. While in captivity their movements are restricted, activities are limited and timed for monotonous work. This study compares the daily routines of elephants managed in three captive systems in Tamil Nadu—private, temple and forest department—to understand how far their daily activities are in accordance with their natural behaviour in the wild. Data collected using focal sampling method for 77 elephants together from three systems show that the captive elephant in the private places, especially those with individual owners are put to significantly more work (7½ hours/day), mostly begging at towns and cities, with stressful walking in hot climate compared to the other two systems. The temple elephants remain in indoor enclosures for significantly longer period (16 hours/day) with very little time (<1 hour) allotted for walking/exercise. In contrast, the captive elephants in the forest department system are assigned significantly lesser time for work (2½ hours/day) and are given more time for natural feeding (13 hours/day), which they also use for other activities like resting, socializing and reproduction similar to that of wild elephants. The study suggests minimizing work duration for private elephants, and increasing the duration of exercise and bathing by reducing the time spent on resting and blessing by temple elephants, to improve their welfare.
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Temple elephants in Tamil Nadu, India, spend less than an hour a day walking and exercising.
“Vanitha, Thiyagesan & Baskaran (2010) determined that temple elephants in Tamil Nadu, India, spend less than an hour a day walking and exercising and are chained nearly 70% of the time in a small space, raising concerns for foot disease, obesity, arthritis, and lowered life expectancy (cf., Ramanathan & Mallapur, 2008”
From Continuing challenges of elephant captivity: the captive environment, health issues, and welfare implications (2024) · cites this paper as Vanitha, Thiyagesan & Baskaran, 2010
Temple elephants in Tamil Nadu, India, are chained nearly 70% of the time in a small space.
“and are chained nearly 70% of the time in a small space, raising concerns for foot disease, obesity, arthritis, and lowered life expectancy (cf., Ramanathan & Mallapur, 2008”
From Continuing challenges of elephant captivity: the captive environment, health issues, and welfare implications (2024) · cites this paper as Vanitha, Thiyagesan & Baskaran, 2010
Comparable situations to those in tourist venues exist for logging, temple, and circus elephants.
“There is little doubt that comparable situations exist for logging (54), temple (55, 56), and circus (57) elephants as well.”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [56]
Similar issues are evident in other regions, like India, where many captive elephants are kept in temples under dismal conditions.
“Similar issues are evident in other regions, like India (56, 117, 118), where many captive elephants are kept in temples under dismal conditions.”
From Comparison of animal welfare assessment tools and methodologies: need for an effective approach for captive elephants in Asia (2024) · cites this paper as [56]
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Social interactions in zoo-housed elephants: factors affecting social relationships
Williams, E., Carter, A., Hall, C., & Bremner-Harrison, S. (2019) · Animals · doi:10.3390/ani9100747 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
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- Authors
- D.G.G. Arts College (Women), M. 6. 0., Vanitha, V., Thiyagesan, K., Postgraduate and Research Department of Zoology and Wildlife Biology, A. V. C. C., Baskaran, N., & Asian Nature Conservation Foundation, I. C.
- Venue
- Scientific Transactions in Enviornment and Technovation
- Publisher
- Integrated Intelligent Research
- Published
- 2010-03-17
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 116-122
- ISSN
- 0973-9157 (ISSN-L)
- 2393-9249
- OpenAlex
- W2187573083
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 11
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 10 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 0.50
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc-nd
- Locations
- Scientific Transactions in Environment and Technovation (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Veterinary › Small Animals › Animal Behavior and Welfare Studies
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Keywords
- Asian elephant, captive elephants, daily routine, animal welfare, working hours, begging, exercise time, natural feeding, Tamil Nadu
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