New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that elephants must be treated and respected as manifestation of divinity and directed for their proper upkeep and health checkups when in captivity across the country.
Hearing a PIL filed by an NGO, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said the court will not delve into religious rights or the faith behind the use of captive elephants in temples.
The bench said it was only concerned with the proper upkeep of the animal and best practices must be adopted for captive elephants by private individuals, temples, forest departments, zoos and rehabilitation centres.
“We are not going into whether a temple can possess an elephant. We are not going into any personal rights or religious rights. What we need to do is harmoniously deal with religious rights and the other laws operating in the field,” it said, adding that the respect to divinity must be extended to elephants also.
The bench directed the Union to issue mandatory guidelines, as required, and take up the matter with the concerned states to introduce an effective and transparent mechanism on the establishment of elephant clinics with specialised facilities, where it shall be compulsorily prescribed for all owners of captive elephants to take the animals for periodic check-ups.
It said a proper medical record of each captive elephant shall be duly maintained and the monitoring committee shall ensure that treatment, wherever required, is provided regularly.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, placed on record a February 25 office memorandum on the proceedings of the Captive Elephants Healthcare and Welfare Committee (CEHWC), which pointed out that the number of captive elephants in the country has increased to 2,725.
Of these, 1,678 elephants were owned by private individuals, 47 by circuses, 96 were in temples, 768 were with forest departments, 63 in zoos and 332 in rehabilitation centres, the document said.
Senior advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, the petitioner NGO, submitted that since around 2019, around 300 elephants were brought into captivity, while around 200 lost their lives.
Senior advocate K Parameshwar, intervening for management bodies of temples in Kerala, said that such petitions come up in courts every time there is a festival in the state.
He said the captive elephants in Kerala temples are taken good care of, including radio tagging for tracking their movements.
Parmeshwar said rules concerning their health and upkeep are very strict and duly followed and the use of elephants in temple festivals in Kerala was an essential part of faith.
Bhat objected to the submission and said their petition does not deal with anything religious but pointed out that elephants which are used in religious processions are owned by private individuals and after the festivities, they are returned to their owners.
She submitted that the NGO's petition was largely centered on physical tortures suffered by captive elephants which are used for commercial and other activities like begging.
The bench directed the CEHWC – constituted under the Project Elephant initiative of the environ ministry – to submit a report on the status of measures it has been proposing for the interest of captive elephants.
It said the committee shall formulate minimum standards for housing and upkeep of such elephants.
The bench also directed for a status report on DNA profiling of the existing captive elephants in the country.
“We direct the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to submit a comprehensive status report explaining whether DNA profiling of all captive elephants, from those with private individuals to those in rehabilitation centres, has been completed and, if so, whether the same has been duly updated in the database,” it said.
The top court refused to agree with the submission of the NGO that no new elephants should be made captive anymore.
“Do you know that in the Northeastern states and in West Bengal’s tea gardens and other areas, every second day a calf is found. Sometimes they are found in the wild. To say that there should be no further captive elephants will be like causing prejudice to the animal itself,” the bench told Bhat.
It also directed that the transportation of captive elephants will not be permitted unless it is duly documented in accordance with the applicable rules, containing complete particulars of the transfer and the purpose of such transfer.
The petition sought an update on the number of captive elephants, update on DNA profiling, refrain order on new elephants in captivity, rehabilitation of captive elephants and uniform rules for their upkeep and welfare.
The February office memorandum said a new sampling kit would be distributed to the states for DNA profiling and data capturing in respect of captive elephants and field manuals will be given to ensure proper care of the animal.