Mysterious case of captive tuskers

In a reply sent on May 30, 2015, the Forest Department had stated that there were 61 elephants in the capital district. However, a reply given on December 12 by the Social Forestry division of the Department states that the state had only 47 captive elephants, one of which had been handed over to the Museum director.

Both the replies were sent to V K Venkitachalam of Heritage Animal Task Force. Further, the latest reply also makes some shocking revelations.

Only 13 elephants in the district have valid documents, it says. And 21 elephants have no documents at all, it adds. It also states that the documents produced by 12 elephant owners were being processed.

Venkitachalam said that a Supreme Court order on August 18, 2015, had ordered that elephants for which ownership certificates were not secured before October 18, 2003, should be considered illegal and confiscated.

When he asked whether any of these 'illegal' elephants had been seized, the reply given was a confounding "not applicable".

The reply has also failed to mention whether any of the elephants not having an ownership certificate was under the custody of the Forest Department. Venkitachalam alleges that most of elephants under the Department's care did not possess any documents.

Venkitachalam also wanted to know whether the Department had taken action against errant elephant owners on the basis of an order issued on August 19, 2015.

The order states that owners should erect proper shelters for elephants under their care before September 18, 2015. Yet again "Not Applicable" was the reply.

However, the reply states that the Department was collecting data on elephant owners who had failed to construct a shelter before the deadline.