Listen to a tape script and fill the blanks with the words

you hear.
Although hunting dealt a serious blow to the wildlife of
the Ganges, the 1.
under British rule took a far
heavier toll. Elephants were put to work plundering the
from which they'd been captured. But while
the wilderness was disappearing, India was hurtling
towards the
. Timber was in huge demand
especially for the expanding

. During the

1870s, one million sleepers were required every year for

the new lines
across northern India. By the
time the British left halfway through the twentieth
century, almost all the forests of the plains had
disappeared and the elephants living within them were
. Today as machinery is increasingly used for
heavy labour, even working elephants are being
. But there's still one place along the Ganges
where these

of burden are traded in large

numbers. The Sonepur Mela is the largest

in

Asia. It started over a thousand years ago and it has

been growing ever since. On the first
in
November, people arrive from all over northern India to

haggle over livestock. The

of domestic

animals affirms their status as the dominant creatures

of the plains. Sonepur's lively horse market provides
endless entertainment for the festival crowds but it is
the elephants that are by far the
. Each
morning the mahouts lead their elephants down to the
river to be washed alongside thousands of worshippers
creating one of the most
of India. The
intimate relationship between elephant and man has
endured for millennia and these animals are still
. In good condition, elephants are sold for as
much as ten thousand pounds so it pays to
them well. Life for captive elephants can be
than it is for the remaining wild
herds of the plains.