UnchainedTV: Help Save India's Elephants!

0:00 We have breaking news for you. Unfortunately, a temple elephant has died in India. A temple elephant just died yesterday. This is the story of brutality and torture. These innocent animals, torn from their families, their spirits broken, exploited for profit, under the guise of religion in India and elsewhere around the world. There's a movie, Gods in Shackles, a film by Sangeeta Iyer.

0:41 She is on a one-woman crusade with a team of people in her organisation to save these Indian elephants. Let's start with the breaking news. Tell us about this elephant who died yesterday, Sangeeta, and why he or she is so emblematic of your battle to save India's elephants? Thank you, Jane. It's really wonderful to be with you here. Sadly, we are sharing the plight of these supremely intelligent animals over and over and over again. The elephant in particular who died yesterday was quite young. He's a bull elephant.

1:23 There are only 4% bull elephants in India. They are being captured from the forest, torn from their families, tortured to submission, and exploited for profit in the name of culture and religion. This elephant died yesterday. I'm still awaiting details. Here's the thing. Last Tuesday, there was yet another elephant who had died. He was only 24 years of age. Almost on a weekly basis, we are seeing the decimation of these young bulls. The image that you're seeing of the previous elephant, he actually is Adiyato Ayyappan. He died in 2016.

2:03 He died because of a wrong diet that was fed to him. They fed him dates that had seeds. These seeds got clogged up in his digestive system. He died of digestive disorder at a very tender age of about 30 to 35 years of age. This is the plight of Asian elephants who are being exploited for profit in the name of culture and religion. This in particular is happening in a notorious state called Kerala, which is in the southern part of India. They are displayed and paraded just so people can be happy.

2:47 Look at the crowd that surrounds them and how people are going wild. Look at the brutality that they have to endure to make humans happy. It's just utterly gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. That's why my film, Gods in Shackles, was nominated in the United Nations General Assembly and won 13 International Film Festival Awards, the first time ever exposing the plight of these temple elephants. We'd like to say that Gods in Shackles is streaming on Unchained TV right now, so please download Unchained TV.

3:27 We are the world's only vegan animal rights streaming network, and we're available on any cell phone for free. You can watch it on unchainedtv.com or on your TV. It's super important to see so you can understand the problem because before you get depressed, all is not lost. We have solutions, and I say we. I mean, Sangeeta has come up with incredible solutions to this horrific, horrific abuse of elephants in India for these ritualistic ceremonies and cultural ceremonies, and the solution is genius.

4:07 The solution is robot elephants. Now, before you say, oh my gosh, that sounds crazy, I'm going to show you a video of the robot, and I was blown away. You cannot even tell that this is a robot elephant. Check this out. This is a short video narrated by Sangeeta Iyer. This is her new project. You can be a part of it. Obviously, it's going to require donations. Watch this, and we'll talk about it on the other side. Elephants from the train tracks, but let's just look at this majestic elephant.

4:52 Doesn't he look real? Well, actually, he is a robotic elephant, and Voices for Asian Elephants has donated this beautiful, majestic elephant to a temple in the Gudalu district of Tamil Nadu, the first ever in the state, and this particular district actually borders Kerala, and the purpose of providing this robotic elephant is to replace live elephants and end elephant torture, but just look at his eye. It moves as though this is actually a real elephant. Look at the eyelashes.

5:32 Look at the texture of his skin. This whole robotic elephant was designed by Prasant, who owns this organisation called HEARTS. This is just the very first robotic elephant that Voices for Asian Elephants has sponsored with the support of Ganesh Hariharan, and the mission is to promote humane treatment of elephants while at the same time preserve India's rich culture and heritage. The good news is that the media coverage has been phenomenal, and there are many temples who are now requesting us to sponsor such robotic elephants, and that gives us tremendous hope for the festival elephants.

6:23 Absolutely incredible. You are a genius. Honestly, I thought, there's something wrong with this video. These are the real elephants, and then I was like, they're so good that you can't even tell that they are real, that they're not real. I want to just show, I did a little here, side by side. You've got the robotic elephants on one side. You've got the poor real elephants that are being tortured on the other side. Why on earth, dear God, would we do this torture if you've got this incredible alternative? I want to ask you more about that, but boy, the callers are lining up.

7:03 Tiffany, your question or thought for Sangeeta Iyer, the maker of Gods and Shackles, streaming on Unchained TV. Thank you, Jane, for taking my call. Wow, they're beautiful, the mechanical. How can we help you get the word out? Is there like a Facebook post we can share, or how can we help you spread the word here in the United States? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, we have a Facebook page for Voices for Asian Elephants. We have a website, vfaes.org. We are on Insta, we are on Twitter, and it's actually bustling. Our Facebook page is quite engaged, so is the Insta, and we are excited to partner with Unchained TV now that we can expose the atrocities.

7:54 But at the same time, we are also providing solutions, which makes it imperative to share, so it's not all doom and gloom, because at the end of the day, without awareness and education, we cannot spread the word. So thank you for asking, Tiffany. Yeah, everybody's just blown away, as I was so blown away. Because when you said robot elephant, I was like, let's see how that's going to work. But I got to tell you, these robotic elephants are just, it's really hard to tell the difference. I mean, look at this detail. Look at this. It looks like, honestly, I was like, this is the elephant.

8:35 Where's the robotic elephant? And then I realised, wait a second. Okay, so here are the real elephants being tortured. Look at all those people. Look at the anxiety that these animals who roam hundreds of miles in the wild must be experiencing. This is the life they lead chained up. I mean, that's a nice photo. I didn't even put some of the worst ones up. And yet, when you could have this instead, but these have got to be expensive. So let's, I want to take the callers, but we got to talk. You need a big donor. You need a big donor to come in and help you. So hopefully somebody who's got some moolah and who's ready to save elephants in India is watching and can save you.

9:19 But every little bit counts. So go to vfaes.org, which stands for Voices for Asian Elephants Society, and donate. All right, we've got another caller, Michelle in Los Angeles. Your question or thought? Hi, I think these elephants are absolutely beautiful. And I was thinking, one of my best friends got married and had an Indian wedding, and they were supposed to have an elephant here in California. And they couldn't get the warrants for it. This is many years ago, and they had horses instead. But what are you doing about the communities here that are culturally in favour of doing this?

10:01 Is that an issue as well? And maybe there's ways to like hook them up with the community, the religious communities here via India? I love that question. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead. Go ahead and answer it. I have a thought too. Yeah, no, I just, I just wanted to say that the awareness of what the cruelty is, I don't think they know. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, you hit the nail right on because we have a large Indian community in the United States. And I have relatives living in the US as well. And this is exactly what we can do is, you know, creating robotic elephants and using them in weddings, you know, is a whole lot humane.

10:48 And it's even, you know, it even protects people because you know, when you bring elephants, or even horses or any animal, aside from the brutality and suffering that they go through, if they lose it, it becomes a public safety threat, right? And so in that regard, it's a win -win situation for both people and animals. So yes, and awareness is critically important. So any Indian person, you know, just turn them towards our organisation, you know, and have them watch this documentary, Gods and Shackles. And it's important for the Indian community living in the United States, to be educated about the plight of these animals.

11:30 It's not cultural, because there's not a single Hindu scripture, or biblical scripture, or, you know, Islamic scripture that says, you have to exploit elephants to make me happy. After all, elephants are God's own creations. And God doesn't want any of God's creations to be suffering the way these animals are. Besides, they are supremely intelligent, highly social animals, just like, you know, how if our children are separated from their families, what will they go through? What will we go through? You know, so this is what the herd suffer. And this knowledge has to be disseminated. And so yeah, anything you can do to support us, again, check out VFAES.org and let's talk.

12:16 We've got yet another caller, Lindsay in Tarzana, your question or thought for Sangeeta Iyer, the filmmaker behind the award-winning Gods and Shackles, as well as the founder of Voices for Asian Elephants. Well, I just wanted to chime in with some of the other, of course, I think it's outstanding, fabulous. It makes my heart happy that this is a possibility. And I go to the practical side of it and think, well, perhaps if the individuals and the organisations that are keeping the elephants to use them for these activities could see that in the long run, the cost would be much less, possibly help them get funding, support in that way.

13:06 Is there anything being done in that area? I just wondered. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. And that's, again, a great question because this is actually our first step and our first temple, but guess what? Yet another temple has approached us and this temple is quite popular. I can't tell you exactly where it is for security reasons, and they want to the live elephants that they used with robotic elephants. So it is going to take a long time because it takes time for attitudes and mindsets to shift because these memes have been planted in their minds for centuries.

13:50 So it's going to take a long time for them to recognise. It's almost like unlearning and then relearning. And so one of the other things that we are doing is we are working directly with the forest departments and we are offering them all of the videos that I'm producing so they can educate their own staff and they can use the videos to educate the public and create awareness. It is going to take time, but we are going to be sponsoring our next robotic elephant in January, February of next year. So that is an exciting prospect and I'm really thrilled to share that. We hope that we're going to have more temples come along.

14:30 We've got yet another caller. Kimberly Culver City, your question or thought for Sangeeta Iyer of Gods and Shackles now streaming on on Shane TV. Hi Sangeeta, hi Jane. Sangeeta, I met you some years back when you had an event in Los Angeles. Yes. Yes, it was a wonderful event and I have a few questions. First of all, thank you for what you do. It's just amazing and I loved your movie. I saw it when it first came out. It was amazing. It's sad, but very educational. Thank you. My questions are, pardon? I said thank you.

15:12 Oh yeah, sure. My questions are when might you have a gala in LA again and how are the robot elephants going? Are people open to them? How many are there? Are more being made? And then is anybody educating these horrible elephant handlers that just beat them and treat them so badly? Is anyone going to them and saying please stop doing that? You don't need to do that or something. Anyway, thank you very much. Yeah. Yeah, thank you. And as I mentioned previously, yes, people are embracing this. I mean, that temple where we inaugurated this first robotic elephant was packed.

15:53 And if you checked out our website and if you went under the media tab, you'll find innumerable news coverage. I mean, we just, even up until last month, we actually launched the robotic elephant on the 7th of February, or sorry, the 3rd of February this year. And the news is still bustling everywhere. And reporters are contacting me from India. Even like just last week, I had a call. So yes, they are accepting and they're embracing. And even the media madness is really going to help us. Secondly, to answer your question with regards to if others want to do this and how we are educating them, well, the best way to educate is by showing.

16:38 And so we are demonstrating how this is working and also explaining to them that it's not only good for the people, but it's also good for the elephants and the culture still thrives. So we kind of incorporate everything that it's a win-win situation. Again, as I said earlier, it's going to take time for people to understand and embrace this. Then with regards to launching a programme in LA, well, if you want to launch an event, we are more than happy to come by and screen this film again. And we can definitely work with Jane and anybody who wants to collaborate with us. We cannot do this alone. So if you're interested, get in touch with us and we can create like a nice little community and volunteers to host events such as this and help educate and embrace compassion and condemn cruelty.

17:35 So that's probably the way to go. What do you think, Jane? How much? I'm totally in favour of it. Absolutely. I many, many years ago, more than 30 years ago, went with my mother to India and like an idiot, not knowing and not realising, oh, I love elephants. Let's take an elephant ride. And I've been doing a living amends ever since. So one of the things we also have to let people know is do not ride elephants. Do not use any animals in entertainment. And I try to think back and like, oh, I was so unconscious. It did not occur to me that these animals might be abused.

18:17 The irony is it's precisely because people love elephants that they do all these things. And that's what we have to do. We have to unhook love of elephants from all these animals, love them from afar, leave them alone. They're not toys. And so my question to you is how much do each one of these elephants cost? And why can't we get the Indian government to get involved with purchasing these elephants? And then somebody else asks, which I think is a really good question, what happens to the retired elephants? Bruce Anderson says, also, are there protected sanctuaries that will receive the retired temple elephants?

19:00 Yeah. So let me answer that question first, because I think it was Kim who asked, so what are you doing to train the mahouts so they don't become, you know, they give up brutality and embrace compassion. So that's another thing that we did. There is this government run elephant rehab centre. And with a team of people, including the Elephant Care Unchained, we went there and we did a rehab programme and trained them positive reinforcement and enrichment programmes, how you can use elephants without abusing and without exploiting them, then without using bullhook and all these brutal weapons.

19:43 And in fact, we did this for like about a week. By the end of the week, one mahout, that is one handler, he was so comfortable with his bull elephant, bull animal that he completely just unchained this elephant and started walking this elephant without, you know, the chains and roaming within the sanctuary. I mean, that was just really, really breathtaking to witness. We've got all those images and videos and everything, and we should probably start sharing those images. With regards to the government, so here's the tragic situation. Just when we thought that, you know, the number of elephants are dwindling, captive elephants that is, are dwindling in Kerala, the Indian government has enacted a law that says the elephants that are in captivity, you know, this is all a very grey area at this point, the elephants who are in captivity can be used for cultural rituals and festivals.

20:49 And that means elephants can be transferred from various states. So, and there's pushback from a lot of animal welfare organisations, but the law has been enacted. And I think the Supreme Court is looking into it. And the situation is that, you know, when there are, let me say, you know, billionaires doing things like that, it's hard to fight back because, you know, legal cases take up funding and energy, and you never know, and you may never win. And there's lots of corruption. This is not a secret. So there are a lot of hassles.

21:29 It's not just as simple as, oh, these are the laws. And this is what you're doing. And so we are going to arrest you or punish you or penalise you. It just doesn't work that way. The nexus of culture, commerce, and politics is just so entangled that it's just really hard to, I mean, I've been working on the ground for 10 years, even to this day, I have a hard time understanding certain things. And just when I think, oh, that's what is happening, then I just peel another layer. I'm like, oh my God, you know? So it's not easy. You are looking at an image from the film, Gods and Shackles, an award-winning film produced and directed by our guest today, Sangeeta Iyer, who's also the founder of Voices for Asian Elephant Society.

22:20 If you want to help, go to the website on your screen, vfaes.org, vfaes.org, and become a donor because these animals cannot speak for themselves and there are solutions. She has created robot elephants that the temples are embracing them and they could then get rid of torturing the real elephants and using them in these horrible ceremonies. Well, the ceremonies aren't horrible, but what happens to the elephants kept in chains? We can't even show you the worst of it and there's no need for it.

23:02 The irony is that India worships elephants and therefore wants to use them, but the problem is that in order to use a wild animal who's used to running hundreds of miles, you have to have them chained and you have to break them and it's a horror show. So if you want to get involved, I want to know how much does each robotic elephant cost and can we start a GoFundMe for per elephant? I would certainly donate to that. Thank you. Yeah, it costs between 12,000 to 15 ,000 dollars. So it's not a lot of money to be honest with you. At the end of the day, it's like if all of us come together, we can easily raise that kind of money and I'm so proud to say that our second elephant has been a robotic elephant that has been entirely donated by Dolores Whitley who lives in New York.

23:56 She's been supporting me since 2013 and she's been a loyal supporter so she's completely donated every penny for the second robotic elephant. The first one was donated but entirely again by Ganesh Hariharan who's of Indian origin but he lives in the United States and so this is how we start, you know, educating the Indian community by doing, you know, by offering solutions as Jane said and so there are issues but for every issue we come up with solutions. Technology is phenomenal, right? Robots, artificial intelligence, I mean this particular robot operates on artificial intelligence and similarly, yeah, similarly we have the EleSense device to save elephants from getting killed on the train tracks, the one that Jane, you know, your title showed.

24:47 I just wanted to address that because the title came up. I want to talk about that. So let's talk a little bit, okay, so $12,000 per robotic elephant. We should definitely do an Indiegogo for a robotic elephant and I would, I'm certainly going to donate to that. Thank you. The solution, what I love is that you don't just show the problem, you also show the solution. So for those who are just joining Sangeeta and aside from coming up with these incredible solutions, we're going to talk about the solution to elephants being hit by trains in one second.

25:28 She is also the producer of Gods and Shackles which is currently streaming on Unchained TV and all you have to do is go to download Unchained TV, put in Gods and Shackles in the search bar, boom, it comes right up. Here's the trailer.

26:11 So you have to see that film. It is streaming on Unchained TV, which is very easy to watch and it's totally 100 % free. All you do is download Unchained TV on your phone or on any television. It's on all Samsung TVs and on any TV with an Amazon Fire Stick, a Roku device or an Apple TV device. And you can also watch it online, go to unchainedtv.com and just poke around. Up to 2000 videos are there, including Gods and Shackles. So let's talk a little bit about your other project, which is trains. So saving elephants from deadly train track accidents.

26:54 This is a horror show, but you have a solution. There's a high-tech solution. Tell us about it. Yes. And so in the last 10 years, approximately 896 elephants have gotten hit and killed on India's deadly train tracks. And West Bengal is one of the most notorious states for this. And so we partnered with an indigenous group of people. And so that is yet another thing. We are empowering the community as well. And so they developed, because they understand the terrain, they understand the elephant movements, and they understand the weather patterns, et cetera.

27:35 So they developed this artificial intelligence-based technology, which is actually, it's called EleSense. And EleSense is fed with four particular items. Number one is the pattern, that is how the elephant, the structure of the elephant, the body of the elephant, it detects the pattern, it detects the temperature. So there's this thermal sensor installed inside this EleSense device. And then there are two other things. I can't remember. Anyway, there are four sensors installed inside the EleSense.

28:16 And so the minute this EleSense device detects or feels those four, the pattern, the thermal, and the movement patterns, and the height, absolutely, all of these things, it sends out a signal to our team, to the forest department, to the railway department. And as soon as the railway department receives it in their control centre, they use a walkie talkie to call the pilot, the train pilot, and say, slow down, there's a herd of elephants there, slow down. So he slows down, farther behind, and the elephants cross, and then there's no death. So in the last year alone, EleSense device has averted 627 elephant collisions with the train.

29:06 And this year, so far, 62 elephant collisions have been averted. And it's only 62 this year, because it's not a cropping season yet. May is a cropping season. And then there's the paddy cropping season, which is like sometime in July, August. So those are the times when elephants cross over the train tracks, come into the villages for raiding the crop, because they love the taste of the crops. It's like an easy target. It's almost like, hey, here's the McDonald's. I'm just going to feed off of McDonald's. Why should I bother going home and cooking and taking the trouble to gather all this food?

29:46 Let's not use that analogy. I don't think anybody should ever go to McDonald's. No, nobody should. No, you're right. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. But I'm just saying that it's like junk food. It's junk food. That's what I was trying to say. So yeah, you're absolutely right. And as vegans, we shouldn't even be talking about it. But in any case, so yeah, that's how EleSense functions. And so that's how we have averted. We are seeing concrete results. I mean, there's nothing that makes us happier than seeing these tangible outcomes. And again, we could not have done this without the support of donors.

30:27 And we are completely reliant on donors to get these kind of projects done, right? Because collectively, we are all heartbroken to see these elephants suffering, but we cannot do this without the funding, right? And so that's one of the things that I'm really, really proud of is to see these results and continue to move forward. And the thing with this is that with saving these wild elephants is that there are approximately 40,000 Asian elephants on the entire planet. 60% of them, that is about between 25,000 and 26,000 Asian elephants are in India.

31:10 It is their last bastion. So we need to do everything we can to save them in India. So we've covered so much ground. We've covered your development of robot temple elephants so that these real elephants are not put in these horrible, torturous situations where they're abused, they're shackled, they're beaten. And just to recap and review, it's $12 ,000 per robot elephant, which is really not a lot. And then the second thing we have that you've come up with, solutionary, which is what I love, not just talking about the problems, but talking about the solutions, you've got this system.

31:53 How much does it cost per system to stop these dead? In other words, if somebody was saying, okay, I want to buy one of these systems for voices for Asian Elephant Society to put out there, how much does one of this train accident prevention systems cost? So it doesn't work on one particular system per se, right? So we take a stretch of the train track, like eight kilometres stretch, and we installed 40 devices. And for those 40 devices, it cost us 60,000. So you can do the math, right? For 40 devices, it costs $60,000.

32:34 And that includes, of course, developing, designing, installing, monitoring. We also have some amazing camera trap footage that shows how the elephants are crossing safely. And so we keep track of them every two months. We get a report on how many elephants have crossed and which area they have crossed in. And we keep track of their passage, their movements, just to make sure that they are safe. So you can divide $60,000 by 40 devices. I don't know how much that works out to. $1,500 each.

33:14 Yeah. So that's another thing because, you know, having emceed so many events where people are raising money, they want to see, it's like nuggets, you know, little bits of change, as opposed to just give me money generally, and I'll do what I want with it. You are showing really specific things that are doable that are let's get this done. And I think that it's, I was extremely impressed by it. And I'm not suggesting this for everyone, but I do play the lottery because if I win, Sangeetha's getting the money, baby. Yeah, I love that. Hey, and it's E-L-E-S-E -N-S-E.

33:56 It's not Alison. It's ElySense. ElySense. I love it. All right. We got another caller, Paige from Los Angeles on hold. Your question or thought for Sangeetha Iyer. Hello, Sangeetha. It's great to connect with you here. Hey, Paige. Oh my goodness. You have been tirelessly working for the freedom of elephants. And here's what I want to ask you. What do you do for self-care? That's number one. But number two is for those of us that are activists out here, what is your secret sauce for the sustainability of your activism? Thank you. Wow. I love that question, Paige, because in September, I'm going to be launching a programme to help activists sustain themselves.

34:45 So the secret for me is connecting with Mother Nature every single day. I drink three litres of water. I am a vegan and I eat only wholesome food. You are marvellous, darling. And I spend about an hour or an hour and a half in the natural world to kind of de-stress or decompress. Because as you said, Paige, you're absolutely correct. Day in and day out, all you do is you see the atrocities against animals. And of course, I'm active on social media, on Twitter, on Instagram.

35:26 I call out people. I say things like, you know, you know, I mean, not rude things, but I'm quite blunt on social media as to like why we are doing this. I call out scientists. I call out the United Nations and tell them you guys have to do more. Otherwise, we're going to need like new international bodies so each of us can speak out and do something. And so, Paige, stay tuned for that programme that I'm going to be launching in September to empower activists and in particular, you know, visionary women to ensure that when they see these atrocities and brutalities, that they are not alone.

36:07 I'm creating a community and just send me a friend request and I'll include you in that community. And this is how we're going to support each other. And I have come up with like a 12 pillar programme again, which I'll be unpacking and we're going to be unrolling that in September. So stay tuned for that, Paige. So you are a dynamo and now you're doing something on self-care or whatever. Wow. Here's the thing. What I really love about your programme is you outline the problem and it's terrible. And we're running out of time because these poor animals are being decimated across India.

36:47 I mean, look how many are using this one ceremony. It's disgusting. But you're coming up with solutions. So your solution of the robot elephants is absolutely extraordinary. And then you also have a solution to elephants being hit by trains. Again, the robot elephants cost $12,000 each, each one. How many do you need? Just give me a number real quick. So, I mean, we are waiting for more temples to get in touch with us, but ideally every year we want to start giving like two or three at a minimum. And then because it takes time for the temples to acknowledge and the religious institutions, because they use the live elephants in churches and mosques as well.

37:34 And so we don't want to push them because then we'll receive a pushback. And so we are saying, okay, you guys observe, you guys tell us. And of course we are doing our outreach programme, talking to schools, going to universities. I just received an invitation from a very renowned college in Kerala to come and share this film and speak there, et cetera. So we keep doing these kinds of outreach programmes. The one thing I wanted to also mention is that the third most sustainable solution that we're implementing is we are purchasing swaths of land and we are completely rewilding the land. So what we did last year in June of 2023 is we purchased a four acre corridor.

38:20 And some people may think, ah, it's just four acres, but here's the thing. On the one side, you have the vast forest region. On the other side, you have another vast forest region, but in between you have these plantations because the Kerala government at once upon a time, they decided, oh, we're going to sell the forest land. And now they're realising that, uh-oh, what did we do? And now they're buying back that land. And so they approached us and we said, okay, well, let us help you. And so again, with the support of donors, we were able to purchase a four acre plot of land and this four acre plot has completely opened up. I went and I checked it just this February, on the 7th of February, that's where I was.

39:05 And they have cleared up the plantations, they have removed all of the electrical fencing. So what this does is it allows 340 plus elephants from this forest patch to walk freely towards the next forest patch. And this is so critically important because if the elephants stay in one area, they'll be inbreeding, they'll start inbreeding. And that will create genetic disorders and threaten the long-term species survival. And so this movement, so, I mean, we can't undermine every single acre of land, right? So we purchased four acres, but this year our goal is to purchase 10 or 12 acres of land in Odisha, where we have planted 20,000 saplings and we have created eight water holes, massive water holes, and elephants are visiting the water holes.

40:01 We just got some images recently with elephants visiting their footprints, their dung and everything. Is it this? Yes, it is. Wow. Okay. So I got this off your website and I was like, look how tiny the people are compared on the right, right? Yeah. And I was like, what exactly is this? So this is a watering hole for elephants. And what you're doing is constructing these around, in the land that you've purchased or where? So this is on the outskirts of the forest, like in between the forest and the villages. Cause what they do is they leave the forest and they come into the villages and because they don't have water, they don't get food.

40:44 So we are planting saplings right next to the water holes in the forest land because these forest areas have been encroached upon by humans. So we are offering job opportunities to the same tribal people who live in those areas and say, okay, you plant the saplings, you help us create water holes. We will pay you money if you can help us protect the elephants. And so that's one thing. I'm another thing that I'm so excited about expanding. It cost us $60,000 for the four acre plot of land in Kerala. Cause Kerala in Kerala land is like a precious commodity in Odisha to in India, overall land is a precious commodity, but for about 10 acres of land, it's going to cost us approximately $110,000.

41:34 And we are going to be launching a campaign. We are reaching out to foundations, et cetera, so they can support us. Wow. I am so blown away at everything you're creating. And there's one more, you're creating a system to prevent elephants from falling into wells, because that is yet another problem in India. They have hundreds of wells that are in the ground and they're like booby traps for these poor elephants. Tell us about that. So in Odisha in particular, approximately 70 elephants have died falling into wells.

42:15 And so we partnered again with local people and we had them instal T-shaped barriers around key wells. We installed about 100 or we covered about 100 wells and there has been absolutely no elephant debts. And guess what? After we did that, I actually lobbied and I spoke with the state government. And this year I am so happy to report that because of our advocacy, in the month of March, I got a message saying that all of the 1300 wells in Odisha have been covered. Yeah. I'm so excited about that. So we don't have to do that in Odisha, but we may have to do it in other states.

43:00 But again, it takes a lot of diplomacy, talking to them, meeting them, letting them know we are genuine, that we are interested to support you. We are not condemning and criticising you, but of course you need to know these problems, but we are here to partner with you. We are here to help you. And so that's how we are making a difference in the lives of elephants. And just recently, about three weeks ago, another elephant had fallen into a well in Odisha, a well that they had never known about. So again, I immediately sent that message to the chief wildlife warden. He said, we are going to cover it this month. So they have covered it in the month of April.

43:41 So every time I get a message, I continue to bug them. Kim Delgado said it. Wow. You are one busy lady, Sangeeta. The elephants are so lucky to have you on their side. They really are. And I just have to say, because I interview so many different organisations, their leaders about what they're doing. What I really, really like is that this is so solutionary. Yes, you have shown us the horrific problems, but you've come up with some ingenious solutions. And I'm just going to recap and review. We're talking about robotic elephants, instead of using real elephants in these horrific ceremonies. We're talking about a high-tech train system where the elephants are detected by the approaching train, and they send a signal to the train driver, slow down.

44:31 This has saved hundreds of lives already. And then you have the watering holes, which these elephants need water. Then you have the very practical creating these barriers around the well so that the elephants don't fall into the wells. And then finally, you have the purchase of land to connect wildlife spaces. There are corridors that allow these elephants to mingle and cross over so they don't inbreed. Okay. So you're talking approximately half a dozen brilliant solutions. Wow. I just hope, I pray that people are listening and that everybody goes to vfaes.org and donates because somebody already said they donated $100, $50, $25, with a large sum of just individual donations and monthly donations.

45:34 We have monthly donors here at Unchained TV, and they're even $5 a month, $10 a month. It helps. It adds up. So get on there. Do you have a monthly donation option? Absolutely. Yes. Yes, we do. I'm going to become a monthly donor right now, as soon as this is over. Thank you. Thank you so much. If everybody watching this became a monthly donor for $15 a month, that's three cups of coffee. Depending on where you are, it could be two cups or one cup of coffee. We could already buy one elephant. So please do that. It's vfaes.org. Donate. I'm going to do it as soon as this is over because I'm excited.

46:15 I want solutions. I get depressed when I hear about these problems, when I see these images, but then when I go, wait, we can fix this. Exactly. So empowering. And I just love the example you're offering all of them. And Tom says, put her on the team. Yeah, you're right. And yes. And Rowan Chandler says, you're a wonderful human being. I hope you publish another book. Yes. On top of that, she's written books. My head is exploding. Okay. And this is another good one we just heard from Navia who donated $100.

46:57 She said, I can spare a cup of coffee for such a good cause. Yes. Thank you. That touches me. Yeah. A couple of cups of coffee. That's what I tell people that donate to Unshamed TV. But the same thing applies to you. For a couple of cups of coffee, you can be saving elephants. And it's just so crucial because we are destroying wildlife all over the world. We've reduced wildlife biomass, mammal biomass to 4 % of total mammal biomass while increasing livestock to 62%, which means that most living beings on this planet are being created forcibly.

47:40 They're not making love on these factory farms, forcibly impregnated and created only to be killed. There's something really wrong with that. We can turn it around by fostering wildlife, rewilding. And Sangeeta, you're also fighting climate change as you rewild. So that's another really important thing that you're doing. You're operating on all fronts. All you need is some cold hard cash to make this happen. And we're going to get it for you. I want to really be involved in this. Let me just tell you a little bit about- Sorry, that website address is wrong. It is VFAES, V-A-E-S, F as in Frank.

48:22 Kim was going to get a thousand lashings with a wet noodle, a wet ramen noodle. Here it is. She's one of our great volunteers though. VFAES.org, V-A-E-S.org. All right. So you're talking about your efforts. I want to take a moment because she has an entire channel on Unchained TV. And some people even say to me this day, what exactly is Unchained TV? So here's a little video that has the answer. So it's a vegan Netflix. Okay. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. I love Unchained TV.

49:03 Unchained. Unchained TV. Your life will change. It's just that easy. Unchained TV has all sorts of content for everybody. Unchained TV changed my life. Unchained TV is crushing it. I love Unchained TV. Unchained TV is my go-to. Unchained TV. Who knew? Unchained, baby. Yes. And you can download Unchained TV. It's so easy. It's free. We're the world's only vegan streaming network. You can download it on your phone. Just go to your app store and put in Unchained TV, one word. Or you can download it on your television. It's on all Samsung televisions.

49:45 There's my Samsung TV right behind me. And there are just some of the more than 1,500, actually, we're up to almost 2,000 videos. And amongst those videos is Sangeeta's The Elephant Matrix. So there's just so much fun stuff, serious documentaries, fun stuff. We even have a reality show called Pig Little Lies, the world's first reality show starring a family of pigs. How sweet. Whatever you're interested in, watch. It's free. People sometimes say, what's your angle?

50:25 My angle is I worked for 30 plus years in mainstream television, and they don't cover. They don't cover what's happening to animals. So I said, I'm going to use my skills. I worked at a lot of networks. I'm going to create my own network. It's not mine. It's a nonprofit. I don't take a salary. We're almost all volunteer run. We are simply trying to get the word out because you know what? No amount of money is going to be as good as saving our planet. If we can't even walk across the street without fading because of climate change, if there's no wildlife left except in zoos, what's the use of money?

51:06 Your thoughts on that, Sangeeta? Yeah, no, you're absolutely correct. And you were talking about climate change. Elephants are climate mitigators. They wander across vast areas for hours on end, disperse seeds in their dung. Each elephant poops about 300 pounds of dung per day. And in that dung, it has all this precious, rich seeds that are wholesome because elephants don't digest all of the food that they consume. And so they wander across 16 to 18 hours a day for miles on end and they disperse seeds in their dung. These seeds become trees, obviously, and trees give us oxygen to breathe and take up the carbon.

51:49 But here's the rub. Elephants also trample the softwood trees, opening up the pathways. And then they also pull down these canopies, allowing the rain and sunshine to penetrate the soil. And the hardwood trees, they devour these rich ingredients and the hardwood trees, they sequester a lot more carbon than the softwood trees. That's how they help sequester carbon and mitigate climate change. And you know, if you want to talk money, the International Monetary Authority Monetary Fund has pegged one single forest elephant at approximately $75 million per elephant in its lifetime.

52:38 We are priceless. Let me just jump in. We got a really quick caller here. We've got like only two minutes left in our show. Annie in Sherman Oaks, your question or thought for Sangeeta. Annie? All right. Well, maybe she went away. I'm here. I'm here. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. What's your question or thought? We only have a couple of minutes left. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you so much for having me. It's awesome what you're doing with the elephant. Sangeeta, it's incredible. From last time I saw you to this time, I love it. And I always share everything about you and your dogs and shackles and all. Is there anything that we can do to approach maybe the government or some organisations that can actually help, aside from sharing here, like in India?

53:33 OK, good question. We have one minute. What's your answer? Indian organisations. Yeah, there are a lot of Indian organisations working on situations like this. Unfortunately, when it comes to culture, there's a backlash always. And these elephant mafias, they use culture and they shield behind the culture and they find shelter under culture and religion. And they say, this is part of our culture. This is part of our culture. And they plan these memes in the minds of people. And then there's this whole entire mob that comes and attacks you when you talk. So it's a difficult situation.

54:13 This is why we are taking a backdoor approach rather than going and attacking them from the front or approaching or lobbying or petitioning. It just doesn't work. India has 1.41 billion people. It's like the most densely populated country on the planet, 18% of the world's population. So we have to be careful in how we deal with the situation there. We are out of time, but I want to say, Sajita, you give me hope. As Nelson Mandela said, it always seems impossible until it's done. You've documented the problem with an award-winning documentary that is streaming on Shane TV.

54:53 I urge everybody to check it out. And then you've also laid out the solution, practical, a half a dozen, practical, affordable, efficient, easy to implement solutions. All you need is that funding. So that's why I say to everybody, if you care, become a monthly donor. I'm going to do it right now. As soon as we're off, $25 a month, we get 100 people doing $25 a month. You won't even notice it's gone. And we will save an elephant and then we'll have a big party. Yeah, absolutely. I look forward to it. And thank you, my God, you're my kindred spirit and the work you do is phenomenal.

55:34 So kudos to you. Thank you for the opportunity. And let's continue this conversation. Maybe we could launch an elephant or something, you know? I love it. Let's do an elephant. All right. We're out of time. All right. Have a good one.