Assam jumbo Prerona to be sent home from Tamil Nadu; find out why

Guwahati: The Tamil Nadu Forest Department has finally decided to send back Deivanai (born Prerona), a 12-year-old elephant native to Assam. In 2014, she was taken to Sri Subramania Swamy Temple at Madurai in Tamil Nadu. 

The female jumbo is notorious for her temper and had trampled her mahout identified as 32-year-old S Kalidasan to death. After this incident, on May 1, 2020, she was shifted to the Elephant Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (ERRC) at MR Palayam, Trichy.

The Forest department revealed the details in reply to an RTI filed by an animal rights activist, Anthony Clement Rubin. They added that the elephant has been shifted due to its bad temper under captivity. Recently at the ERRC, Deivanai attacked a 24-year-old assistant mahout, Charan, who was bathing her. The mahout is undergoing treatment for spine injuries. 

Although Rubin welcomed the decision of the department to send Deivanai back home, he said, "It would have been better if they had taken the action in the earlier stage and saved a person's life." Meanwhile, the incident has once again brought the issue of illegal possession of elephants to the limelight. 

Deivanai was born on May 3, 2008. In 2014, she was given on lease to Tamil Nadu by Lila Bora, a middleman from Golaghat district in Assam, for a period of three years. As per the agreement, the lease expired on April 29, 2017. Questions have been raised as to how the elephant was being used even after the expiry of its possession certificate. 

Earlier in a similar incident, a 33-year-old female elephant, Joymala from Assam was allegedly kept in illegal custody and was used for begging. Though she was leased for a period of six months, she was illegally used for eleven years.

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