Goa Lawyer Opposes Devotee's Plan To Take 2 Assam Elephants To Tamil Nadu Temple

Guwahati: A Goa-based lawyer has shot a letter to centre and Assam forest department opposing the transfer of two young female elephants to a temple in Tamil Nadu from upper Assam's Tinsukia.

The lawyer identified as Alok Hisarwala Gupta, who is also an animal rights activist, wrote a letter to Assam PCCF (wildlife) and chief wildlife warden MK Yadav citing media reports that the executive officer of the Annamalaiyar temple had submitted an application for taking permission to allow a temple devotee who is a businessman, in acquiring, transferring and donating 2 young female elephants from Tinsukia to the temple in Tiruvannamalai.

The copies of his letter had also been sent to the Director and Deputy Director of Project Elephant, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and Chief Wildlife Warden, Tamil Nadu Forest Department.

He said many videos of the inspection have been circulated by the temple devotees.

"The video is extremely disturbing as it shows a young elephant with a deep bloody gash on her forehead which appears to be poorly masked by sindoor. The calf has been trained to raise her trunk as a blessing gesture, making her ready for sale and use in the temple", Gupta said.

He said the entire exercise was in direct breach of the prohibition of the sale and transfer of elephants under section 43 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

"It is also in contravention of the Supreme Court order dated 04/05/2016 in WP 743/2014, whereby the Court has directed that no elephant should be transferred from one state to another, under the guise of trade", Gupta added.

He further goes on to say- "Therefore, any application to transfer an elephant must be filed before the Supreme Court of India, and not directly to any forest department. This case is identical to a recent IA No. 32654 of 2019, filed by one Md. Rehan Uddin, a private owner of Elephant Fulmala, in Assam, who has sought the Supreme Court's permission to transfer Fulmala to a temple in Kanyakumari".

He further said that the Project Elephant has also opposed this application by their Affidavit in reply dated 24.08.2020, based upon both the inbuilt prohibitions in law, but also relied particularly on the communication of the Tamil Nadu forest department dated 17.07.2020.

He also said that the Tamil Nadu forest department, in its letter, had made reference to the 2019 report of (late) Scientist Ajay Desai that recorded, in reference to one temple elephant Gomathy that the plight of highly social and sentient elephants in solitary confinement in temples was akin to incarceration.

"While I respect the sentiments of the temple devotees, it is important for all of us to collectively acknowledge that temples are no place for elephants, which only belong to the wild. Devotees must be made to understand the pain and suffering that goes into separating a young, social elephant, from her natural habitat and taken to the foreign, concrete surroundings of the temple," Gupta avowed.

He mentioned that if these transfers were still carried out then it would not just be illegal under law but also a contempt to both the Supreme Court and the high court of Madras.

The lawyer said that many residents across Assam and Tamil Nadu are already outraged, after the horrific violent incident of the elephant Joyamala getting beaten and abused in March 2021 that revealed several elephants from the wild in Assam were currently being illegally used for performances in the different temple and ritual duties.

A proposal to return a young elephant Deivanai who had a history of violently attacking her mahouts, and had also killed one mahout, had been lying pending with the Assam forest department to bring it back.

Gupta said that instead of bringing any further elephants from the wilds of Assam to the temples in Tamil Nadu, there must be a course of correction to return those elephants which had already been illegally kept in Tamil Nadu, to the elephant rehabilitation centers, preferably in Assam, into their natural habitat.

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