New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre, Animal Welfare Board and Rajasthan on a petition seeking a ban on elephants being used for ceremonial parades and joy rides in Rajasthan to promote tourism.
A bench of justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C. Pant issued notice returnable in eight weeks on the petition filed by Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation centre, which highlighted the cruelty being subjected to the elephants during such parades and joy rides.
The bench sought response after hearing senior counsel Shyam Divan and Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar. It said there are 130 captive elephants in Jaipur that are used for the purposes of tourism.
Most of these elephants are used to ferry tourists in the Amber Fort in Jaipur from 7.30 to 11.30 am. About 50 of these elephants live in Hathigaon (the Elephant village) that is supported by the Government of Rajasthan, and its setting up was also funded by the Government of India. The rest of the elephants live in different private sheds in the near vicinity.
That these elephants are subjected to intense and relentless physical and mental cruelty and are made to live in extremely poor conditions. Elephants are made to work tirelessly in the scorching heat without any readily available access to water for them to drink.
Almost all of these elephants have injuries due to use of metal ankush, chains with metal spiked hobbles and clamps and some female elephants have holes drilled in their tushes to fix heavy artificial tusks.
The health and well being of the elephants is totally disregarded and they suffer from painful infections, back swelling, it said and wanted the ban. The court had already issued notice to all the states on the main petition seeking protection and rehabilitation of over 3,000 captive elephants being used for temple festivals, rituals and other activities.
The Bench also warned Kerala that elephants should not be subjected to cruelty during temple festivals in the State and they should be registered. The bench posted the matter for further hearing in February 2016.
