Kerala: Rules favour owners, not jumbos

THIRUVANANATHAPURAM: The guidelines issued by the Forest Department for parading elephants during temple festivals look heavily loaded in favour of elephant owners and have left many issues related to elephant safety vague. The guidelines had even diluted certain directions issued by the High Court. It is particularly non-specific about the transportation of elephants. It says that elephants should not be made to walk for a long time on tarred roads during noon.

This when the High Court had specifically banned the walking of elephants on tarred roads between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. “By saying that an elephant should not be made to walk for a long time, they have indirectly allowed elephant owners to walk elephants during noon time,” said Mr Balachandran, a former elephant owner and now an animal activist. The order then says that an elephant should not be made to walk 30 kms at a stretch.

“This means that you can walk an elephant for more than 30 hours a day but only that it should not be at a stretch,” said K Venkitachalam of Heritage Animal Task Force. “Ideally, the order should have said that an elephant should not be made to walk for more than 30 kms a day,” he added. Equally intriguing, the need to produce the owners’ certificate at the time of a festival has been done away with. The order makes it optional.

The need to have the name of both the elephant and the owner on the chain tied around the neck of the elephant too has been taken out. Now, only the name of the elephant needs to be on the chain.  Further, the order says that the fitness certificate should be renewed every 15 days. “The fitness certificate should be renewed for every parade as the elephant can turn violent any moment,” Mr Balachandran said. “Moreover, there are owners who let out their elephants for more than two festivals a day,” he added.