Wildlife & Biodiversity

Activists show lacuna in Assam PCCF’s notification on elephant microchips to prevent illegal transport

Microchips are issued for stolen or illegally captured elephants too; a captive elephant with a microchip may be a wild-caught one, they say

By Shuchita Jha
Published: Friday 12 August 2022
Representative photo from iStock

Wildlife activists have picked up a loophole in the notification issued in June this year by the Assam Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden, MK Yadav regarding the microchips fitted in captive elephants.

The notification calls for all captive elephants in Assam to be examined for the presence of microchips and their DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) to be tested if the devices are absent.

The notification came after a convoy of trucks carrying 10 elephants to Gujarat was stopped at Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh June 7, 2022.

According to the documents accessed by Down To Earth, a seven-year-old male elephant ‘Kamno’, who was among the 10 being transported, belonged to Chow Molaseng Namshum of Arunachal Pradesh.

But Namshum was granted an Ownership Certificate (OC) for Kamno under Section 42 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, May 25, 2022. The OC however, did not mention how Namshum came to possess the juvenile elephant.

Wildlife activists pointed out in response to the notification that microchips were issued for stolen or illegally captured elephants too.

Activists working for animal welfare in India were well aware of how elephants were captured from the wild and tortured with sharp implements and hit badly to make them submissive.

“Captive elephants are not the product of animal husbandry. They are trained with brutal methods,” Alok Hisarwala, founder of the Centre for Research on Animal Rights non-profit, told Down To Earth.

He referred to one of the elephants being transported from Arunachal Pradesh.

“The OCs in case of the 10 elephants did not mention whether the jumbos were acquired through purchase or succession or if they were born in captivity. The silence on the pathway to the elephant’s acquisition raises legitimate concerns of illegal capture,” he said.

The notification, issued in June, stated:

It is learnt that several captive elephants of Assam origin were moved without permission to the neighbouring states of Assam and are being used for illegal activities such as dragging of illicitly felled timber and also that several of those elephants did not carry microchips.

It added:

It has been directed that all such elephants registered in the respective division but currently being kept in the neighbouring states of Assam like Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya are required to be produced in the respective division to examine for microchips. If found without any microchip, all such elephants must undergo a DNA progeny test.

The microchipping of all captive elephants began in 2002 as part of Project Elephant launched in 1992. The aim was to keep a tab of all the captive elephants in India.

A microchip is a device that is inserted in the elephant’s skin, generally behind the left year. It is a small device that has a unique code number that cannot be duplicated.

At present, microchips have a type of Registration Certificate that can help in confirming the ownership details of an elephant along with the date of registration of the animal and its medical history.

The notification further warned that if the owners of the elephants are unable to produce the elephant before the division for examination within 90 days of the notification, their elephants will be seized.

Down To Earth reached out to PCCF Yadav for a comment but received no response.

The convoy in June carrying — seven male and three female sub-adults — were being transported in 10 trucks with Rajasthan number plates.

The trucks were stopped by a group of volunteers from the Adi Students Union in the wee hours of June 7, on the suspicion that they were illegally smuggling the elephants.

However, they were later allowed to pass the same day when the drivers presented all valid documents.

These included veterinarian fitness certificates, no objection certificates from both the Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh forest departments and non-commercial donation documents between the elephant owners and the Radhe Krishna Temple Welfare Trust in Gujarat.

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