Elephant is the beauty of nature. And that too if its Indian Elephant, specifically Kerala Elephants is the marvellous animal to watch.
Three things in the universe can be enjoyed by merely watching them. Sea, Naked Woman and the Elephant!!!
Kerala is often called State of Elephants. No wonder the state animal of Kerala is Elephant and even the government logo has two Elephants in it. It has about 800 elephants and 80% of them are tuskers. Physics of Elephant is really interesting. A grown up bull Elephant weighs 3.5 - 5 tonnes where as a cow Elephant weighs 2.5 to 3.5 tonnes. Elephants drink 200-255 litres of water a day. I.e., 50-60 litres at a time, 3-4 times a day. A trunkful can retain 6-7 litres or even as much as 10 litres!!! An elephant's trunk is formed by the fusion of the upper lip and the nose. It is made of approximately 1,00,000 muscles.
The skin is very thick and hence is called a Pachyderm. The skin has several folds and wrinkles, which help to remove heat. Though the skin is thick, the elephant will experience pain when injured. The total number of bones in the elephant's body is 282 and the total number of vertebrae is 61. The bones are not very thick and so the likelihood of a fracture is greater.
Eventhough Elephant has a huge body, it has got very less sweat glands which forces it to fan their ears so as to regulate the body temperature. The Elephant also lowers the body temperature by sucking secretions from the mouth and spraying it on its body with its trunk.
If the Elephant is kept sitting on its back knees, the position of organs can be very well compared to that of a human being. So also the life time of Elephant is equal to that of a man.
This is the only animal which sleeps while standing!!!
The sharp memory shown by the Elephants is commendable. It can even remember things which happened in its childhood.
In Artha shastra, an ancient Indian text, authored by Chanakya, described the value of elephants as equivalent to gold. Chankaya says that, a man deserved capital punishment, if charged of killing an elephant.
