Shivangi Prakash-
Published on August 06, 2021 12:28 IST
Madras High Court issued a slew of orders to the Chennai-based Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department to protect the wellbeing of elephants maintained in captivity in temples and elephant parks.
The Court also stated that it intends to hold an “alfresco hearing” in the presence of captive elephants held at temples to determine how they are treated by the relevant authorities.
In an interim ruling on a public interest lawsuit petition, Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu made the observation.
It was filed by Srirangam activist Rangarajan Narasimhan, who was protesting the mistreatment of temple elephants. The petitioner pointed out to the Court that the Department and the temples, both hold enough property to establish significant pockets of natural habitats for elephants, allowing captive elephants to be housed there and only moved to the temples for rites at appropriate periods.
Individual elephants are not being allocated mahouts who can be harmful to them, according to the petitioner, as the link between an elephant and a mahout is lifelong, and when mahouts are changed regularly, elephants may react aggressively.
Accordingly, the Court opined that it is high time for elephants to not be taken into custody anymore and thus issued directions.
“The officials in the Forest Department must obtain expert advice as to what the daily routines of captive elephants should be and coordinate with the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department or those responsible for running the temples where these elephants may be, to ensure more ethical treatment of the large animals, even if it is accepted that elephants that have for long been in captivity cannot be released into the wild”, the Court stated.
Furthermore, the Court said, “It is also time to stop any further elephant being domesticated or taken into captivity, except in case of injury or like disability, and that, too, only by forest officials in special enclosures maintained within forest areas.”
The bench also hinted that they might hold a hearing, where the elephants are kept to find out their living conditions.
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