By IANS
Kathmandu : Though four countries have signed agreements with the Nepal government to build new hospitals and the SAARC regional centre for tuberculosis (TB) research is located in Nepal, the disease has become a jumbo menace – stalking elephants doing tourist duty in the southern plains.
Three elephants have died of TB and 10 more been found affected in the Chitwan National Park in the Terai plains, a major tourist attraction, Nepal's official media said Friday.
After three of the elephants, used to give rides to tourists, died of TB in 2005, the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Sciences together with American organisation Elephant Care International tested 108 pachyderms.
After examining their saliva, the National Tuberculosis Centre in Kathmandu diagnosed 10 jumbos with TB.
However, while the governments of India, South Korea, Thailand and China have signed recent memorandums of understanding (MoUs) to upgrade medical facilities and build new hospitals in Nepal, animal healthcare in the Himalayan country is badly neglected.
The national park has neither the funds nor the expertise to treat the ailing elephants.
Instead of treating them, it has only reduced their working hours, the state media said.
The sick beasts, which are likely to have caught the disease from humans, especially their keepers, are still being used to carry tourists, adding to the risk of spreading the disease among unwary visitors.
"Their condition is getting worse," the state media said. "They cough, are losing appetite and are getting thinner."
Treatment for the jumbos is likely to cost Nepali Rs.100,000 per animal who, during the period of treatment, should be put on rest.
Besides funds, the national park lacks the expertise needed to treat the patients. The park authorities have not been able to diagnose which TB strain the animals are suffering from and what the medical dose should be.
Of the 10 sick animals, seven are males and three females.