Chained up inside a dark concrete building in Jaipur, India, Suman the elephant calf can’t do anything but cry out for her mom. She’s only 6 years old — but her torturous and lonely role as a show elephant has already begun.
Recent video taken by undercover agents with Wildlife SOS shows the young elephant writhing in her pen while continuously bobbing her head in distress. A thick rope is attached to one of her ankles to keep her from moving around too much.
Suman’s owner, a notorious wildlife trafficker known to attack his elephants with axes, also owns her mother and father — but the family is forced to live apart from one another.
“Keeping 6-year-old Suman locked up and not allowing her to be in bodily contact with her mother and family members is a crime,” BK Singh, a retired Forest Department official, said in a statement. “The owner does not have proper documents for these elephants. It is high time the Forest Department takes action and seizes Suman who can be shifted to the [Wildlife SOS] elephant rescue center in Mathura.”
“Once Suman is moved out of the state she will be lost and can never be traced again,” the rescue said in a press release. “He [the owner] will then be free to use the same money to purchase more baby elephants.”
Wildlife SOS rescued Suman’s older sister, Peanut, who was also separated from her family and forced to perform in circuses. Rescuers remember seeing her spend days on end in her enclosure just bobbing her head, a common sign of distress in captive elephants.
Peanut is now 9 years old and lives happily among other former show elephants — and rescuers are hopeful they will be able to reunite the two sisters so they can spend the rest of their lives together after everything they’ve been through.