The Madras High Court on Friday directed the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF) to prepare a catalogue of all captive elephants in the State. It ordered video recording of the elephants together with complete profile of each elephant including its age, sex and also the lineage, if possible. The court wanted every endeavour to be made to indicate how the elephants came to be captured or domesticated.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu issued the directions after Elsa Foundation, an animal protection organisation, gave a power point presentation to the court and claimed that almost all captive elephants in the State were those that had been procured illegally in violation of Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972 and that the pachyderms undergo immense pain and hardship in captivity.
As far as the temple elephants were concerned, the PCCF should assign appropriate officials, along with doctors from the relevant areas, to inspect the elephants and ascertain the state of their health. This exercise must be conducted for all captive elephants in the State but it should begin with elephants in the custody of various temples in the State, the first Division Bench ordered.
“The number of elephants available with the forest officials should be indicated with similar profile and the history of how the animals came to be captured or used by forest officials. It is also necessary to ascertain whether any practice continues in which elephants are captured today, if only for the purpose of use by forest officials; and the permissibility thereof,” the court order read.
Referring to the presentation made by Elsa Foundation which claimed that elephants had been transported illegally from as far as Assam to various temples and individuals in Tamil Nadu with active connivance of government officials, the Bench ordered that the PCCF should respond to such aspect of the matter by September 24 so that the court could pass further orders.
The interim orders on cataloguing were passed on a batch of cases, including the one filed by activist Rangarajan Narasimhan of Srirangam, complaining about the cruelty meted out to temple elephants. In response, advocate A.K. Sriram, representing Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple management, suggested that it could allot nearly six acres of land for creating a natural environment for two of its elephants.
After recording his submission, the Chief Justice wrote: “While the suggestion is a welcome departure, it is also time to re-think whether, in the light of the law in the country, elephants can be subjected to the ignominy of participating in temple celebrations or temple rituals and whether such activities are any better than elephants being used for begging on streets.”
He went on to state: “Religious sentiments must, at times, yield to reason and the animal's point of view, if at all the same may be perceived, may also be taken into consideration upon obtaining scientific and expert advice in such regard.” The judges also recorded objections raised by S. Muralidharan of INCARE, a private body, to the presentation by Elsa Foundation.
Mr. Muralidharan claimed that the practice of domesticating elephants had been in vogue for centuries together and that the captive elephants, if taken care of well, survive longer than the wild elephants.
Published - September 04, 2021 01:00 am IST
