CHANDIGARH: In many ways, the death of Chhatbir Zoo 's oldest living inmate, the male tusker Rajmangal, was a unique passage of the fallen spirit. His two principal mahouts, Aporba Deka and Akhtar Khan, were granted a substantive interlude of 90 minutes alone with the tusker and they carried out the last rites of the dead by covering the body with a light orange embroidered sheet, sprinkling flowers and by lighting a diya and incense sticks.After the mahouts were through, zoo employees, officials and officers led by the field director gathered in Rajmangal's special enclosure and in a scene reminiscent of a cremation ground/graveyard, the bereaved humans ringed his body and mourned his sad demise. A giant, a colossus of the animal kingdom had passed away gently into the night.Rajmangal was the zoo's oldest living inmate, who had crossed 70 years of life before dying on Monday. "His body was not burnt like most of the zoo animals but buried due to scientific, humane and environment-friendly reasons. Not just the mahouts, Rajmangal had touched the lives of many more staff members as he was off public display since the last two years due to ill health and unpredictable, sometimes violent, behaviour. The giant was thus in constant need of varied staff members who would attend to his needs such as tranquillisation, orthopaedics and food intake, among others," field director M Sudhagar told the TOI.Due to an elephant's high emotional and intelligence quotient and a long life, the giant mammal develops a very deep bonding with the mahout. An elephant may be associated with three generations of a mahout and is revered by Indian cultures and society. "I still cannot believe Rajmangal is gone. I am in a state of emotional shock and when I go to his enclosure, my heart tells me he is still there. He was like my child. I am a Sarania Kachari tribal from Assam, and we worship the jungle. If an elephant dies in our Assam jungles, we cover it with a sheet and perform the last rites so I did the same with Rajmangal," said Deka.Flashing enormous tusks, Rajmangal had lent a unique distinction to Chhatbir, as it is only one of six zoos of India allowed to maintain elephants. "Rajmangal came to us in 1998 armed with a fierce reputation. At Chhatbir, he also attacked and wounded a mahout and a female elephant. There were some positive incidents also associated with Rajmangal," added Sudhagar."In our zoo, we do not cremate big animals (elephant, rhino and hippo) because we would have to cut the body into pieces to fit into the incinerator. If we burn the body in the open, it will consume a lot of firewood and will take nearly two days to burn. So, we buried Rajmangal as it was the most appropriate method,” said Sudhagar.Rajmangal leaves behind his widow, Hema. He had sired two progeny, Seema and Rajveer, but both died due to chronic enteritis and snakebite, respectively.Rajmangal came to Chhatbir in 1998 with a deeply troubled history. He was booted out of the Rohtak Forest Range Complex in 1998 as the tusker inflicted widespread damage worth lakhs of rupees (including the demolition of a water tank) after he broke his chains. He was then ordered to be shot by the Haryana chief wildlife warden but was saved on Maneka Gandhi’s intervention. The Delhi zoo refused to entertain such a fearsome tusker but Chhatbir accepted the challenge to rehab him. Rajmangal still bears the scars of a burning tyre thrown on his back by a mob when he ran amok on the Rohtak streets, killing a child and injuring a few people. This was after the tusker slipped out of control of the sadhus who had exploited him to solicit alms for years.

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