Based on substantive documentation and research provided by elephant researchers and professionals, God in Chains  highlights the condition of captive elephants in India today. Commissioned by the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (WRRC) and Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA), Gods in Chains provides an excellent introduction for readers  interested in looking behind the veils of glamour and majesty of the captive pachyderm. While elephants are revered in India, they are nonetheless kidnapped from the wild and brought into captivity to suffer tremendous hardships in their use in religious processions and temples, ecotourism, and labour.

God in chains is also  a story of the often troubled and complex relationship between captive elephants and their ‘mahout’, or elephant keeper. Life for the traditional mahout has changed much like the lives of elephants have changed with social and environmental turmoil.

Highlights:      
Provides a much needed documentation of the status of captive elephant welfare in India

• Describes how better management and welfare practices for captive elephants can be designed and implemented.
• Provides an easy, accessible guide for students, policymakers, animal welfare activists, animal healthcare professionals, and other individuals wanting to make difference in the lives of these great wild creatures, with whom humans have forged a deep and abiding relationship.
• Provides insight into the inherent problems of the existing social and environmental issues.
• Enumerates specific and practical recommendations for implementation by all involved agencies to achieve good stewardship of elephants
• Articulates the WRRC’s central objective of assisting the Government in the creation of a network of elephant sanctuaries across India where these magnificent animals could roam safely much as they used to in the past