Painted Pink: Why The Death of Captive Elephant Chanchal in Jaipur Has Raised Numerous Concerns |
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Bengaluru: An elephant in hot pink. And a model poised on the pachyderm, also painted hot pink. You’d think it’s AI, but it’s not.
Photos and videos of this scene at Jaipur in Rajasthan, captured by Russian photographer Julia Buruleva in late 2025, have drawn a lot of attention on social media. Buruleva conceptualised the entire visualisation. Chanchal, the 67-year-old female elephant in the picture had no choice after her owner consented, for a payment of Rs 2,500. And a few months after her mahout painted her pink with gulaal (a local color powder) for the 10-minute photoshoot for Buruleva, Chanchal died – allegedly from heart failure due to old age, as per a post mortem report.
Buruleva has defended her ‘art’, saying that she was just interpreting what she saw. However, citizens and activists are raising concerns about the old animal’s treatment and death. The post-mortem report shows that the elephant had existing health conditions, including mouth lesions and a foot wound. Vets say that chemicals in the color may have aggravated these health conditions.
Activists told The Wire that the incident raises existing concerns about the commodification of elephants, highlighting once again the thorny issue of captive elephant welfare across the country. This comes at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has repeatedly said that the Asian elephant “is linked to our culture and history” and that his government would do “everything possible to ensure elephants get a conducive habitat where they can thrive”.
The prime minister is right: the Asian elephant is indeed closely linked to India’s culture, history and religion, as epitomised by the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesha. Across centuries, Asian elephants have been depicted in paintings and sculptures, like this 2,300 year-old Buddhist statue that archaeologists unearthed in Odisha just three years ago. But there’s a dark side too.
Elephants have been captured from the wild and trained (using methods such as negative conditioning) for purposes ranging from use in wars, hunting, transport and in religious ceremonies including processions, such as in Kerala.
India still has an unenviable number of elephants in captivity: 2,675 as of January 2019 as per a reply submitted by the Union environment ministry in parliament. That’s more than 10% of India’s total elephant population as per the latest census in 2025.
In Rajasthan, captive elephants are used mainly for tourism activities such as elephant rides. Mahouts ‘decorate’ these elephants by painting them with colourful motifs and patterns using gulaal, a local color powder (traditionally made out of herbs).
After spending six weeks in 2025 in the capital city of Jaipur – where elephants were “everywhere”, on “streets, ornaments, architecture” – Buruleva hatched upon the idea to capture on camera “a pink elephant against classic Rajasthani gates”, she said in a social media post on March 20 this year.
“They’re often decorated for festivals and celebrations – locals paint them in all sorts of colors. I decided on one solid bright pink elephant, the most popular color in Rajasthan. Preparation was intense. I visited several elephant farms to find people willing to cooperate. At the farm with the most reasonable manager, I went four times – to show I was serious,” she said in the post.
The post features videos of a model, painted pink, atop Chanchal, the 67-year-old elephant that Buruleva managed to employ for the shoot. It also shows videos of Chanchal’s mahout smearing the elephant with gulaal.
Chanchal died on February 4.
According to a report by NDTV, the post mortem lists heart failure brought on by old age as the reason. Chanchal’s mahout, Sadiq Khan, told Indian Express that the elephant – once part of Hathi Gaon, an elephant rehabilitation center near Jaipur – had retired five years ago and that it was old age and not exposure to chemicals that killed the animal months after the photoshoot.
Post-mortem report shows “chronic health issues”
Wildlife veterinarian and One Health specialist Dharmaveer Shetty, who analysed Chanchal’s post-mortem report for The Wire, said that the findings are consistent with cardio-respiratory failure in a geriatric elephant.
“That explains the mechanism of death, but it does not establish a specific cause,” he said. “There is no evidence in the report to directly link the paint exposure to the death. At the same time, the report is limited. There is no toxicology or histopathology, so it cannot confirm or rule out exposure to harmful substances.”
The report also suggests that the animal had existing health conditions, he added. “The mouth lesions and foot wound indicate chronic health issues, which could affect feeding and mobility, and point to ongoing physiological stress.”
So could the pink paint have affected the elephant’s health? That depends entirely on what was used and how it was applied, Shetty said.
“Elephant skin is thick, but areas such as the trunk, eyes, mouth, and rectum are sensitive, and there is potential for ingestion during grooming,” he said. “Certain substances could be harmful if present, but that cannot be assessed from the available information…The broader issue is the use of elephants in such settings, particularly older animals, where multiple stressors can accumulate over time.”
While it is unlikely that the chemicals in the color brought on Chanchal’s death, it is likely to have aggravated existing health conditions if any, said another wildlife veterinarian Shantanu Kalambi. Gulaal can be an irritant – especially if it is applied on skin that already has abrasions, Kalambi said.
Traditionally, gulaal is made from dried herbs. However, there are reports of color and fragrances being added to stone powder that is then passed off as gulaal in Rajasthan. A study published in 2016 found that Holi colours including gulaal comprised more than 40% (and up to 80%) particulate matter (or PM10, a known air pollutant and health hazard). In laboratory conditions, the colors also showed a tendency to cause inflammation and cell toxicity. The study also recorded fungal contamination in a sample they analysed. Several pharmaceutical sites such as this one also list that synthetic Holi colors can trigger health issues in people including contact dermatitis, a skin allergy.
“Most elephants in Jaipur are in bad shape already,” Kalambi, who has treated captive elephants in Rajasthan in the past, told The Wire. “They have bad skin, and foot infections. They are already subjected to a lot of cruelty such as being forced to walk on hot stone surfaces.”
Most captive elephants also do not have access to mud or dust baths, an activity that elephants normally engage in in the wild that ensures healthy skin, Kalambi added.
“In the case of Chanchal, while the application of color would not have contributed to the animal’s death, it has definitely contributed to the detriment of animal welfare and the status of captive elephants in India,” he said.
Ethical and animal welfare issues
And testimony to this are the more than 6,500 comments (as of April 8) in response to Buruleva’s March 20 social media post of pink Chanchal. Indians have pointed to several ethical issues pertaining to using the elephant in the photoshoot. Some call it an “objectification” of the elephant, asking Buruleva if she would even attempt a similar shoot in her country. Animals are not props, some said; others objected to how Buruleva had “bastardised symbols of cultural significance to a lot of people, and sexualised art” and that she should have been mindful of “tone, privilege, your alienation from indigenous values and practices”.
“This feels like a textbook imperial depiction of a culture that is not her own. The whole ‘tamasha’, this lens of orientalism, and the subtle affirmation of Western superiority are difficult to overlook,” one user commented.
“A human can consent. An elephant can’t. That comparison is absurd. It’s already captive, already conditioned and you’re using that to justify exploiting it for “art”? That’s not creativity, that’s ignorance,” another user commented on Buruleva’s post dated December 27.
“Whether the paint is “non-toxic” or the handler is experienced doesn’t change the fact that this is a wild animal being used for aesthetic value. Many practices have existed for generations — that alone doesn’t make them ethical. We’ve evolved past a lot of things once considered “normal.” And turning an animal into visual content – no matter how beautifully framed – feels fundamentally wrong,” another said. Commodification of animals is unfortunately seeing an upward trend across the country, said Sumanth Bindumadhav, Director, Wildlife Protection, Humane World for Animals India.
“The elephants in Amer have a tragic life as it is with their primary purpose being ferrying tourists up and down cobblestone paths even in extreme weather conditions,” he told The Wire. “Multiple reports have highlighted the plight of these elephants and the last thing they need is being commodified for photoshoots – especially in this day and age with increased consumer awareness. I believe the photographer has defended their actions stating the non-toxic nature of colours used but the issue runs far deeper than that. The fact that wild animals are abused for entertainment says something about everyone involved. The Rajasthan forest department, state government and central governments are well aware of the various legal and welfare concerns around these captive elephants. I hope this serves as yet another wake up call to outlaw these practices, have the elephants sent to a lifetime care facility, and provide alternate employment for the mahouts associated.”
“A catch-22 situation”
Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan K.C.A. Arun Prasad told The Wire that no permission was sought from the forest department to paint Chanchal pink, and that such a permission was not required.
Officials in the department conducted an inquiry into the incident, and the mahout said that a photographer approached him for a photoshoot; and that he had used gulaal to paint the elephant pink. It is difficult to ascertain now whether the animal was painted pink using organic gulal or a chemical, Prasad said.
“We are in a catch 22 situation,” he said. “The incident is over and the elephant died due to old age, as per the post mortem.”
The only thing the department can do now is to make sure that such an incident does not repeat, Prasad told The Wire. “We will issue directions to them to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Does this mean that the forest department thinks that this incident amounted to cruelty and commodification of the species which is listed under Schedule I of the Wild (Life) Protection Act, 1972? Prasad didn’t have a direct answer.
“Elephants are being paraded for processions in other parts of India also, so isn’t that commodification too,” he asked. “These people have been doing this for generations.”
Photoshoot misrepresented, says Buruleva
Meanwhile, Buruleva has said that her photoshoot with the pink elephant “was widely misrepresented online” and that “claims of animal’s abuse and death are false”. In a social media post on April 5, Buruleva said that the photo shoot was “carefully controlled”, and only “safe, non-toxic paint was used”, and that the process lasted 10 minutes with the paint being washed off 30 minutes after the shoot.
“The tradition of painting elephants has existed in Rajasthan for more than 2,000 years. Chanchal – the elephant who participated in the shoot – was raised in the specialized elephant village Hathi Gaon, designed to provide enhanced living conditions and professional care for elephants. The painting was a familiar practice within her environment – not something new, extraordinary, or stressful for her.”
Through her shoot, she was not glorifying or justifying this practice but merely “reflecting” what she observed, she said.
She also wrote that legal action is being prepared against individuals and organisations spreading “false and defamatory information”.
In an interview with content creation platform More Of Everything on April 1, Buruleva said that there were so many other “bigger issues” in India including pollution, stray animals, animals eating plastic and ecological issues but instead people focused on this case and made a “scandal” around the artist who painted one elephant, she said.
“During the shoot the elephant was really calm, really relaxed, really playful, so everything was really very good,” she said. Some activists want to ban the practice (of decorating elephants or banning elephant rides) completely but then what happens to the families who depend on this for their income, especially in a place where people are struggling financially,” she asked.
Though several news houses such as this and this reported on April 2 that Buruleva had started a petition seeking support for herself after the negative backlash from netizens, Buruleva’s petition or post appears to have since been taken down.
Incidentally, an older version of Buruleva’s post on March 20 (which The Wire accessed on March 30) had tagged the social media handle of the model who posed for the photoshoot (whom Buruleva referred to as “truly brave and bold”). As of April 8, however, Buruleva appears to have removed the tag entirely.
Elephants in captivity
Scientific studies such as this one show that there are several challenges to maintaining elephants in captivity. Elephants are highly intelligent, social, and spend 80% of their time moving around in search of food and water in the wild.
Currently, the capture of elephants from the wild and trade in these animals is illegal in India. But the Union environment ministry under the Modi government has diluted legislations pertaining to elephants in captivity in the past years, making it easier to own and transfer elephants.
In 2022, the ministry amended the Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972. One of the changes made by this Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Act, 2022, is that elephants owned privately can be transferred between individuals or states for “religious and any other” purposes – something that the law did not permit earlier.
In 2024, conservationists again raised concerns about the possibility that the Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules 2024 notified in March that year could enable illegal capture, exploitation and commercial trading of captive elephants.
These changes mean that the commercial sale and purchase of elephants will no longer be prohibited under the Act, experts have told The Wire. This can legitimize the live trade of elephants, “reviving a now-dying illegal trade in wild-caught elephants, and thus negating years of successful conservation efforts”, conservationists have told The Wire.
These legislative changes paint a stark contrast to Modi’s recent assurances that his government would do “everything possible to ensure elephants get a conducive habitat where they can thrive”.
Meanwhile, citing the case of Chanchal, animal welfare organisations are now demanding that elephant rides be banned. Actor Rupali Ganguly, who is also a supporter of PETA India and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, wrote to Prime Minister Modi flagging the death of Chanchal.
The incident “has upset people across India and beyond, reflecting how strongly the public now feels against elephant exploitation” the actor wrote. “On World Wildlife Day, you shared the importance of wildlife protection. It is in this spirit, I respectfully urge that India end all elephant rides as Indonesia has now done, and that robotic elephants, decorated electric vehicles, and other non-animal alternatives be encouraged for use to protect our national heritage animal from use in cruel spectacles.”