CALCUTTA, India, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- A decision to administer birth control to female elephants in India's West Bengal around Calcutta is drawing fire from animal-rights groups.
West Bengal has about 400 elephants, of which nearly 70 are tame and in service to private owners or the state forest department, the BBC said Saturday. The Bengal Forest department spends nearly $130,000 annually on the upkeep of the elephants it uses to patrol wildlife sanctuaries.
A forestry official said budget cuts are forcing the department to "maintain those elephants that are useful and introduce birth control amongst the whole population," the BBC reported. There are three to four births annually among the department's elephants, the official said.
Veterinarians would administer birth control injections and pills to about a dozen female elephants used by the forest department.
Wildlife conservation groups are angered by the proposed birth control. Instead of preventing reproduction, they said, baby elephants should be released to the wild, or alternative funding sought, the BBC said.
