CJ: Bring Temple jumbos under AWBI's control

Chennai: An elephant requires at least 200 litres of water a day, but those in temples are given just a bucketful. The shrines/mutts do not have qualified and trained personnel to look after the animals.

Highlighting these ordeals faced by temple elephants, a PIL has been filed in the Madras high court seeking a direction for better maintenance of the giant mammals in temples.

Radha Rajan of Tiruvanmiyur, in a PIL, submitted about the plight of an ailing elephant - ‘Madhuravalli’ at Arulmighu Koodalalagar temple. ‘Gomathi’, an elephant at Arulmighu Mahalingaswami Thirukovil, Kumbakonam, was also ailing. The elephant practically stands abandoned by the mutt and thus steps should be taken to hand it over to the Forest Department, the petitioner said. Elephants suffer torture in silence in temples. She further stated that three temple elephants in the State died in the recent past and no post-mortem was done on them.

The First Bench headed by Chief Justice S.K. Kaul, suggested that  elephants in temples and mutts may be brought under the control of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI), for better maintenance rather than by unqualified persons.

Adequate finance should be provided  for deployment of competent persons by AWBI. The Bench also directed the State Welfare Committee to look into the aspect of inserting chip on captive elephants to monitor them.

Petitioner’s counsel Sathish Parasaran submitted that though chip was being inserted on captive elephants, the authorities do not have scanners to monitor the  pachyderm. This leads to death of  elephants. After its death, the chip is removed and fixed on another elephant.