Relaxation camp gives elephants a chance to forget

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A month-long holiday camp for stressed elephants has opened in southern India where over-worked animals will be able to socialise over top class food under the expert attention of vets.

Most of the stressed-out animals at the rest and recreation camp are owned by temples where they perform ceremonial roles. A handful are employed by the forest department to clear jungles and help with logging.

Officials in the state capital Madras, also known as Chennai, said Jayalalitha Jayaram, the chief minister, mooted the idea for the elephant holiday camp following reports that many had started behaving badly by attacking their mahouts, because of over-work.

Some were also being utilised by their owners to beg on the streets, an activity that was contributing to substantially raising tension within the animals. But attendance at the camp is less than the organisers had planned, as many animals refused to be loaded on to lorries to transport them there.