Kerala High Court Directs Completion Of Census Of Captive Elephants Within One Month

The Kerala High Court on Monday (January 13) ordered that the census of captive elephants in the State be completed before February 15. The Court had in its earlier order on December 19, 2024 directed the State to constitute a committee in each district comprising of the District Collector and Divisional Forest from the District for conducting the survey. The Court said this was necessary to ascertain the legality over the ownership of these elephants and to allow the custodians to parade these elephants for temple festivals.On the last date of hearing the Court had orally asked the State to specify what is the “sufficient space” that is to maintained between the elephants as given in Kerala Captive Elephants (Maintenance and Management) Rules, 2012. During the hearing on Monday, division bench of Justice A. K. Jayasankaran Nambiar and Justice Gopinath P. asked the State to specify the distance to be maintained between elephants that are used for procession and the distance that should be maintained between the elephants and the public. The Court said that once the Rules had already said that sufficient space is to be maintained, the State cannot abstain from specifying the distance.On Monday, the Court–in the aftermath of the Tirur accident that happened on January 8 where an elephant in the procession during BP Angadi Nercha injured 29 persons and killed 1 person–directed that the District Committee constituted under the Rules should allow parading of elephant only after ensuring that the elephant is fit for parading and after satisfying that the rules will be followed namely in matters of transportation, rest and parading. The Court said the committee has to monitor if the Rules are followed.The case is next posted on January 21. Case Title: In Re Captive Elephants v UOICase No: WP(C) 31520 of 2024

Kerala High Court Directs Completion Of Census Of Captive Elephants Within One Month

Manju Elsa Isac

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