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You can assume their departure would have been at a slow pace - plodding even.
But fast or slow, the elephants have left Mumbai, exiled by the state authorities who ruled that forcing the animals to walk through the traffic-clogged streets of India's largest metropolis was too cruel.
"We want to keep the poor elephants off city roads. It is sad to see them walking with traffic going past," said Shree Bhagwan, a Maharashtra state Forestry Department official.
The ban came into effect last week, forcing the 14 elephants and their mahouts - or drivers - from the city after the authorities responded to calls from animal rights campaigners.
The campaigners said the elephants - used for begging by their handlers or else rented out as symbols of prestige for weddings - were mistreated. Among the complaints were that the animals were not properly fed and that they suffered from foot and skin ailments after walking on the city's scorchingly hot streets.
When they were not being used to make money the animals were chained up for hours at a time under traffic-clogged overpasses.
Activists who had pushed for the ban - the first in any Indian city - welcomed the decision by the Maharashtra authorities but said they should also have made adequate arrangements for the animals' future.
"It would have been ideal to build rescue centres first and then issue the ban," N. Jayasimha, a lawyer with the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, said. "But the order is positive and a step in the right direction."
- INDEPENDENT
