You worship elephant, take care of it: SC orders clinics, health checks for tuskers

The top court also ordered that medical records be maintained for every elephant and stressed that its immediate focus was on ensuring the welfare of animals kept by private owners, temples, forest departments and other institutions. The court directed the government to create an.

The court also asked the Captive Elephant Health Care and Welfare Committee, constituted under Project Elephant by the Environment Ministry, to submit a report on measures being taken for captive elephants and prescribe minimum standards for their housing and upkeep. The court wants to.

What Happened

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for the petitioner, raised concerns over continuing cruelty and urged the court to prohibit the bringing of new elephants into captivity. She also questioned the origin of captive elephants and sought details of prosecutions.

• A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued the directions while hearing a 2014 public interest litigation concerning the captivity, trafficking, treatment and rehabilitation of.

• The CJI-led Bench further sought a comprehensive status report on DNA profiling of more than 2,700 captive elephants in India, including those held privately and those in rehabilitation centres.

• The figures before the court showed that 1,678 captive elephants are with private individuals, 786 with forest departments, 358 in rehabilitation centres, 96 with temples, 63 in zoos and 47 with circuses.

Key Details

Senior Advocate K Parameshwar, appearing for a temple association and an elephant owners’ association from Kerala, urged the bench to distinguish temple elephants from circus elephants. Temple-owned elephants are not the same as circus elephants.

• The Centre and the concerned committees will now have to place reports before the court on healthcare, housing standards, monitoring and DNA profiling.

• These elephants may no longer be capable of surviving there (in the wild).

• The court also acknowledged the difficulties involved in releasing long-captive elephants into the wild.

Why It Matters

I am not saying that every captive elephant in Kerala is maintained up to the required standard. But the entirety of temple elephants in Kerala cannot be painted with a broad brush.

• Let us say that in a temple, an elephant is used for a religious procession.

• We are not going into any personal rights or religious rights.

What Reports Say

Coverage of the story so far points to:

• Continued reporting by India Today as more details emerge