About all the keyboard eco-warriors furiously pounding out their reviews in righteous indignation at the alleged mistreatment of these elephants. I can almost hear the blood of these armchair conservationists boil as they watch this documentary through their privileged first world lens. "I am a sponsor of an elephant trust", one declares, while another bleats, "I do not care about your (Tamil) cultural reasoning!", most likely from the safety and comfort of their modern abodes, and on devices like MacBooks that probably cost more than the annual salary of the caretakers in the documentary. In doing so, they expose their lack of any cultural sensitivity and indeed any true sense of sacrifice or worldliness.
Elephants are as revered as cows in India, because of a god, Lord Ganesha, who is part elephant. This does not mean that elephants are not used as a means of transportation like horses. It simply means that they are bestowed more respect than most animals. The elephants left behind or cast out of their tribe would very likely perish if not for human intervention. The impoverished caretakers find meaning and purpose in their lives through looking after these elephant cubs, just as the e-conservationists do so by aligning with values of animal welfare and ethical treatment without ever risking being eaten by a tiger or stabbed by an elephant. My only complaint is that the documentary was not nearly long enough.
