The indiscriminate ingestive behavior of cattle predisposes them to accidental swallowing of both penerating and non penetrating foreign bodies that settle in the reticulum and rumen most of the times. As a result of extensive occupation of grazing land by human inhabitants there is dearth of the same for cattle. Further, reduction in space in the urban areas has pushed the cattle population to fend themselves in the streets.

Mahouts are a specialized class of people with a proud professional background. However, the profession is losing its appeal owing to the dwindling importance of captive elephants. We have assessed their incomes, number elephants, background and human casualties by captive elephants through extensive surveys in three captive elephant management systems - private, Hindu temple and forest department prevalent in Tamil Nadu.

Captive Asian elephants Elephas maximus are managed in three systems in Tamil Nadu namely, private, Hindu temples and forest department. The authors studied the population size and structure, natality and mortality during 2003-05 in the three systems to assess their long-term viability.