About Indian Elephant :
The Indian Elephant goes back to the mythologies. As the Gods (Deva) and
the demons ( Asura) churned the oceans during sagar manthan ( sagar = sea ;
manthan = churning ) for the elixir of life - amrit ( nectar ) that would
make them immortal , there surfaced the navratnas ( nine jewels ). One of
these jewels was the elephant. The elephant is, therefore, considered
absolutely precious to be preserved and protected like the way jewels are.
The
Asian elephant is one of three species in the order Proboscidea, the others
being the Savanna elephant and the Forest elephant. The Indian elephant
(Elephas maximus indicus) is a one of three subspecies or races of the Asian
elephant ''Elephas maximus". The other two subspecies of the Asian
elephant are E. m. sumatranus on Sumatra and E. m. maximus on Sri Lanka. The
Indian elephant for example, is larger, has longer front legs and a thinner
body than the Asian elephant found in Thailand. Through adaptive radiation,
elephants until the Pleistocene Era (2 million years ago) had spread
throughout the world except for Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. Their
sheer size was a factor in allowing this wide radiation and they could be
found in a wide variety of habitats from desert to high mountain forest
areas. Elephants in general are the largest existing land mammals and they
have the biggest brains in the animal kingdom (weighing 5 kg or 11 lbs).
Elephants are endowed with versatile trunks, which have over 100,000 muscles
units that make it extremely dexterous. This incredible dexterity enables an
elephant to pick up very small items and use their trunks for a wide variety
of functions. The trunk has no bones or cartilage except for a tiny bit of
cartilage at the tip of the trunk which separates the nostrils; each nostril
is lined with a membrane.
