Sunday, September 18 2005 15:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thrissur: With the Australian Government's plan to buy Asian elephants for captive breeding facing stiff resistance from animal rights groups, the International Federation of Animal Welfare (IFAW) has approached elephant expert from Kerala, Dr Jacob V Cheeran, to study the feasibility of the scheme.

The programme, called Captive Management Plan (CMP), envisage import of elephants from Thailand and breed them and bring up the calves in selected zoos in Australia. When the calves grow up and multiply their parents would be returned to the motherland, which is known as ex-situation conservation, Dr Cheeran told sources.

The proposal had been opposed by animal rights NGOs for ethical as well as practical reasons.

"Considering the long gestation period, age of maturity and inter-calving period of elephants it is difficult to take the scheme as practically sound," he said.

It would take 20-plus months for a she-elephant a deliver a baby after conception and the inter-calving period was also longer in the case of pachyderms. So it would take decades for the parents to return to their homeland after replenishing the elephant population for the host.

According to Dr Cheeran, IFWA had asked him to study whether there would be any conservation benefit for the Asian elephants from the scheme.

"The lobbyists for the scheme in Australia had been angry over the delay in its implementation after creation of breeding facilities spending big money", he said.