High Court compares life of captive elephant to being in Nazi extermination camp

The High Court observed that captive elephants were being extensively used in religious festivals in Kerala and the same was being sought to be justified on the touchstone of tradition and religious practice.

In Short

• Court criticises commercial exploitation of elephants in festivals
• Strict conditions set for parading elephants, including rest and shelter
• Prohibits harmful practices and illegal possession of elephants

The Kerala High Court has termed the life of a captive elephant as an "eternal" Treblinka -- the second-deadliest extermination camp built and operated by Nazis during the second world war-- and stipulated conditions to be followed for grant of permission to parade jumbos in festivals or other events.

The High Court observed that captive elephants were being extensively used in religious festivals in Kerala and the same was being sought to be justified on the touchstone of tradition and religious practice.

It said that, in reality, the animals were being commercially exploited without any care or concern for their well-being.

"We do not believe that there is any essential religious practice of any religion that mandates the use of elephants in festivals," a bench of Justices A K Jayasankaran Nambiar and Gopinath P observed.

The bench also noted, in its order of November 13, that the elephant was being treated as a "tradeable commodity" with its owner only concerned with the commercial returns.

It said that one of the biggest indicators of captive elephants being exploited for commercial gains was the high percentage of deaths -- 160 -- between 2018-2024 of the total 509 captive jumbos as of 2018.

The bench further noted that an updated list of captive elephants given by the forest department in August this year shows 388 jumbos in captivity, of which 349 are with private persons.

"Many of the elephants on the list have no ownership certificate. The name of the custodian, and the name of the owner as per the ownership certificate/ microchip certificate are different.

"As such, the possession of the majority of the elephant appears to be illegal, which needs to be verified by the government," the High Court said while stipulating the conditions to be followed for grant of permission to parade jumbos in festivals or other events.

The conditions included adherence to the model feeding schedule, issuance of fitness certificates by a government veterinarian only, providing a shaded, clean and adequate shelter and eight hours of rest in a day.

The court also laid down conditions on transportation of elephants for exhibition, saying that no pachyderm should be transported on foot for more than 30 kilometres a day and anything more than that, upto a maximum of 125 km per day, has to be by vehicle.

It also said that no elephants be transported between 10 pm and 4 am, no procession of pachyderms be permitted through public roads between 9 am and 5 pm and no jumbos be exhibited for a continuous period of more than 3 hours.

The bench also said that no contest like head lifting, saluting, showering of flowers or making elephants stand on their two rear legs and salute -- a practice now introduced at the 'Thirunakkara Pooram' -- shall be permitted under any circumstances.

"In addition to the above, we direct that no organiser or Devaswom shall permit the deployment of any squads which go by the name 'elephant squads' in any festival or exhibition where elephants are being paraded.

"We also prohibit the use of any 'capture belt' or such other crude and inhuman method of capturing elephants that may run amok or otherwise misbehave," the High Court said.

The bench issued the directions while observing that the Kerala government and its officials "have failed to implement the directions issued by the Supreme Court" to implement the Kerala Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules, 2012 and have in fact "conveniently chosen to ignore them".

"Time and again and for nearly one and a half years, this court has been informed that the state is in the process of overhauling the 2012 Rules. However, we are informed that the authorities are dragging their feet reportedly at the behest of pressure groups including associations of elephant owners who want the 2012 Rules to be further diluted while the need of the hour was to make it more stringent," the bench said.

It sought an affidavit from the forest and wildlife department indicating whether the orders issued by the Supreme Court have been complied with and if not, the reason for non-compliance.