Chennai: Recording the statement of additional chief principal conservator of forest that it is not possible just to capture and tame elephant into a kumki, the Madras high court has said elephant Chinna thambi should not be put to any physical discomfort.
A division bench comprising Justices S.Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad ordered notice to the Union and state governments, besides principal chief conservator of forest on a PIL filed by People for Cattle in India represented by its secretary G.Arun Prasanna.
The bench posted to February 11, further hearing of the PIL, which sought to restrain authorities from capturing, taming, tranquilizing or harming the wild elephant in operation named as ‘Chinna thambi’.
The bench said the intention of the government appears that elephant should live in its natural habitat. Apprehension of the public is also to be taken note of. Elephant should not be put to any physical discomfort. Additional chief principal conservator of forest submitted that it is not possible just to capture and tame
elephant into a kumki, the bench added.
Earlier, advocate general Vijay Narayan submitted that Ajay Desai, an elephant expert and other forest officials, have gone to the forest area to send back the elephant Chinna thambi, which was now squandering in Amaravathi area.
There were two kumkis, specially trained to control the wild elephants, which were behaving violent. No harm will be done to Chinna thambi, he added.
In his petition, Arun Prasanna submitted that Chinna thambi along with one more elephant called Vinayagam had been in the news since December 2018 as they were seen entering human habitats in Coimbatore. While Vinayagam was
translocated in December 2018 itself, Chinna thambi was translocated on January 26, 2019.
The newspapers reports indicate that on February 1, 2019, Chinna thambi has returned from the translocated area (in the woods of Annamalai Tiger Reserve at Varaagaliar near Topslip) to the Udumalai area forest range. On February 3, to his shock and surprise, he found an article in a newspaper titled Chinna thambi to be tamed as a kumki.
According to the article, the forest officials were planning to capture the elephant and employ methods to covert it into a kumki elephant, he added.
He said in several instances all over India, wild elephants were inhumanely captured and confined to krawls in order to tame them. The process of taming a wild elephant involves capturing and confining a wild elephant in a krawl (wooden
enclosure in which the animal cannot move a muscle).
After confining the animal in a krawl, the process of ‘taming’ it begins. The animal is chained, beaten and tortured by numerous people for several months in order to break the wild spirit of the animal and force it to obey orders of human beings. This is done by constantly beating the animal, poking its body parts with extremely sharp objects, pulling out its tusks and injuring it in ways that cannot be imagined.
The animal is even starved and is not given food or water. The entire process of taming is an utterly barbaric act and in violation of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and the Wild Life (Protection) Act. Such a cruel process of taming a
wild elephant to make it a kumki is not contemplated by law, he added.
