Feb. 1: Six-year-old Veda has kicked off an elephantine row ? and not just because it happens to be an elephant.

An international wildlife and animal welfare charity has sought Manmohan Singh?s intervention to stop the transfer of the Bangalore-based pachyderm as a ?diplomatic? gift to Armenia.

?The Born Free Foundation urges the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, to reconsider this gift and to call the move off,? its CEO Will Travers said last night.

?It is deeply disheartening that the custom of using animals as diplomatic gifts still continues,? said the charity?s co-founder Virginia McKenna, who starred in the 1966 classic Born Free. ?Animals are not inanimate objects and certainly deserve to be treated with due respect for their nature and needs.?

The foundation pointed out that in February 2004, two elephants in a group of eight died while being shipped from Thailand to china.

In Delhi, sources in the Prime Minister?s Office confirmed that a letter requesting Singh?s intervention has reached. But Veda appeared destined to board the flight to Yerevan Zoo.

Karnataka forest department officials said the departure has been delayed because of sub-zero conditions in Armenia and it will fly in March or April.

?We got the orders from the Centre,? said Ram Mohan Ray, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife). ?There?s nothing much we can do.?

Veda is not the first diplomatic ?offering? to have triggered a controversy.

Between them, George Fernandes and Jaswant Singh reportedly gave away three white tigers, one to Japan and two to Libya, when the NDA was in power. All of them died.

Not that animal diplomacy has been a one-way affair. As foreign minister, Jaswant Singh was gifted a colt and filly by crown prince Abdullah-bin-Abdul Aziz when he visited Saudi Arabia.

Earlier, Rajiv Gandhi had gifted Sri Lanka an elephant and Indira Gandhi a white tiger to the then USSR.

But Veda?s proposed transfer has raised questions about the ethics of such diplomacy. It ?highlights the urgent need for this issue to be addressed on an international basis?, said McKenna. ?Not only for this elephant, but in future no more animals should be used in this way.?

BJP MP and animal rights activist Maneka Gandhi said the government ?is sentencing the baby to death?. Elephants, she added, need an ?ambience which is neither too hot nor too cold?.

In Bangalore, animal rights groups have launched a signature campaign in protest against the government?s gesture.