Listen to this article:

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 Wire