NEW DELHI: The Yamuna, as it flows sluggishly past the Delhi Secretariat building, makes for a despairing picture. In fact, an imaginative mind would look at the dirty river, the dusty brown banks and see decay and ruination in the scene. A mahout watchfully mindful of 40-year-old Kanchan nearby would probably concur. As the elephant swipes at the sugarcane stalks strewn around and pushes them into her mouth, the mahout perhaps realizes that life with an elephant no longer promises much on the banks of the Yamuna. Kanchan, of course, is not legally allowed to graze, bathe, rest or play on the banks of the river. The men who take care of...
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