The district administration has warned of strict action against owners of captive elephants who fail to produce the details of the animals under their possession by September 28.
It was decided to adopt a serious view of the issue at a meeting chaired by District Collector Biju Prabhakar and attended by the Forest officials concerned and elephant owners at the District Collectorate here on Wednesday.
Mr. Prabhakar said elephants that were not registered before the deadline would be seized and handed over to the Forests and Wildlife Department under the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Elephant owners have been directed to submit the details regarding captive elephants to the Assistant Conservator of Forests within the deadline.
Statewide exercise
The Statewide enumeration is being undertaken by the department in wake of the Supreme Court order, which has directed measures to ensure well-being of captive elephants in the State.
Jayakumar Sharma, Assistant Conservator of Forests (Social Forestry), Thiruvananthapuram, said the previous enumeration had been conducted in 2012.
As per the existing official statistics, there were 48 captive elephants in the district.
“Of these, many elephants may have died and some could have been gifted to owners in the district. Certain elephants were also found to be maintained by people who were not registered as owners. This has called for yet another enumeration exercise so as to achieve clarity and ensure proper monitoring of the captive elephants and their welfare,” he said.
Mr. Sharma added that the ongoing process would be soon followed by efforts to enforce another directive by the Chief Wildlife Warden G. Harikumar that made it mandatory for elephant owners to provide adequate shelter facilities for the pachyderms.
Owners who failed to provide housing for elephants would be fined, Mr. Sharma said.
Previous enumeration was done in 2012
48 captive elephants in capital district
