An elephant cow and her calf being transported from Assam to Jamnagar is once again raising several questions

On Sunday, Pratima, a 55-year-old elephant injured in captivity, and her calf embarked on a journey from Manas National Park in Assam to Vantara, a private zoo owned by Anant Ambani, the scion of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Assam forest department officials detained three large vehicles in Lower Assam on May 2 to verify the permits for the transfers of the animals.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)’s India chapter, an animal rights group, alleged that the animal was kept illegally in captivity in Unakoti district of Tripura. Following this, the organisation intervened and sought permission for the transfers of the elephants to Vantara from a Supreme Court-appointed committee.

On the other hand, these elephant transfers from Northeast India to Vantara remains controversial with conservationists and wildlife activists from the region. They have cited irregularities even in the recent transfer of the mother and her calf, which they believe has led to large-scale displacement of these animals from their native habitats.

A picture of Pratima sticking her trunk outside the vehicle — labeled as ‘animal ambulance’ with Gujarat registration numbers — was circulated across various social media platforms on the morning of May 2.

Assam forest officials, acting on information circulating on social media networks, detained the trucks on National Highway 15 in Chirang district’s Manikpur.

The vehicles were detained for document verification, a senior forest office from the Assam Chief Wildlife Warden’s office said.

“The deputy field director of Manas National Park and Chirang divisional forest officer verified the papers. Upon verification, it was found that people driving the vehicles had requisite permissions from a court committee to transfer the animals to the Radha Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT) in Jamnagar. They will be allowed to go after the verification is complete,” the official told Down To Earth (DTE) on the condition of anonymity on May 2. RKTEWT is a trust run by RIL, which claims to have a specialised elephant care centre next to the group’s petrochemical complex in Jamnagar district’s Moti Khavdi village.

According to PETA, the plight of the elephant came into the light when a Tripura resident, Puneeta Sharma used X (formerly known as Twitter) to post a video of the injured elephant on April 14.

The comment thread on Sharma’s post shows that PETA’s official handle approached her seeking more details of the elephants and wrote to a Supreme Court appointed High Powered Committee (HPC) led by former judge, Deepak Verma.

A Supreme Court bench hearing a slew of petitions in March 2023 extended the ambit of a HPC formed by the High Court of Tripura in November 2022 to the entire country. The apex court stated that the HPC would deal with all requests for approval, dispute or grievance, concerning transfer or import into India or procurement or welfare of wild animals by any rescue or rehabilitation centre or zoo, by taking assistance and co-operation, whenever needed, from all departments and authorities across India.

In a press release issued by PETA on May 5, the organisation stated: “After hearing from PETA India and hon’ble member of Parliament Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi, the High-Powered Committee (HPC) of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India recommended that 55-year-old elephant Pratima and her calf be transferred to The Centre for Elephants at Vantara in Jamnagar to address the mother elephant’s chronic and complex medical conditions, which are apparently due to years of severe neglect.”

From captivity to displacement

The PETA release added that Pratima and her calf were being kept illegally without an ownership certificate by an individual at Unakoti in Tripura. The release stated that the captivity of the elephants was in violation of Section 42 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act (WPA), 1972, thereby making the possession of the animal illegal under Section 51 of the WPA, 1972.

“A veterinary examination revealed that Pratima was emaciated and had sustained multiple abscesses on her body. Her left foreleg was swollen, and she was unable to bear weight on it and was limping. She had also sustained multiple injuries to her abdomen and was suffering from a lack of muscle mass that had caused her backbone to become arched,” the release added.

The animal rights organization, in its press release, claimed that Vantara would provide a lifetime of care for the injured elephants. “PETA India is so happy that neglected Pratima and her beloved calf will finally find refuge under the care of experts at Vantara,” Khushboo Gupta, director of advocacy projects told DTE.

However, wildlife activists in Assam have expressed their shock over the transfers of these elephants. “Why does an injured elephant in Northeast India have to go Jamnagar, which is more than 3,000 kilometres away? If the elephants were illegally kept in Tripura, the forest department should have taken the custody of these elephants and approached the veterinarians in the state or they could have contacted the Government Veterinary College in Guwahati. Besides, in Kaziranga, the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) runs a rescue and rehabilitation centre for wild as well as captive animals. When India is experiencing one of its deadliest heatwaves, these elephants are being made to travel more than 3,000 kilometres away from their original habitat. If this animal was injured so badly, how was it fit for transportation to such a distance?” asked Mridu Pawan Phukan, a wildlife activist based in Assam.

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PETA, on the other hand, maintains that the elephant’s condition was critical. “The HPC allowed the transfer after we approached the committee with our complaint,” a PETA representative told DTE.

Curiously, in the video posted on X, the Tripura resident claimed that the injured elephant was pregnant. PETA however could not verify claim made by Puneeta Sharma. On the other hand, the Tripura Chief Wildlife Warden’s office is yet to respond to the queries posed by DTE. The Central Zoo Authority guidelines prohibit transportation of pregnant elephants.

While PETA claimed that there were no facilities in Northeast India at par with Ambani-owned Vantara, the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation, a veterinary care centre run by WTI in Kaziranga said no such requests to rehabilitate Tripura elephants were received.

According to Bhaskar Choudhury, the lead veterinarian at the Centre in Kaziranga, the Centre has treated numerous life threatening captive elephant emergencies successfully in the past 23 years. 

“Abscesses and swollen limbs are fairly common among captive as well as wild elephants which could be treated in any veterinary hospital in the country. We only treat wild animal at the Centre but extend our service to all captive elephants, including routine health checks of population managed by forest department in various protected areas. They are not ‘admitted’ at the Centre but our services are available wherever we are called,” Choudhury told DTE. 

Long way from home

Curiously, it is not the first time that PETA has approached the Supreme Court appointed HPC to transfer elephants to Vantara. In April 2024, PETA campaigned to rescue Malti from Amer Fort in Rajasthan. Malti was used to give rides to the tourists visiting the Fort, a popular destination. PETA found that Malti was illegally confined in the fort with no ownership papers.

A PETA representative told DTE that most of the elephants in Amer Fort are from Northeast India. Being used for entertainment, Malti and other elephants have reportedly undergone severe mental and physical trauma which often manifested in attacks on tourists or fights with other elephants in the Amer Fort premises. The HPC approved the transfer following which, Malti was shipped to Vantara.

On March 13, however, the Bombay High Court stayed a transfer of Mahadevi alias Madhuri to RKTEWT in Jamnagar for which PETA campaigned extensively in December 2023. The court heard a petition filed by the owners of the captive elephant who argued that the transfer was not approved with their consent. The owners submitted before the court that they were taking care of the said elephant. Curiously, PETA maintains that Mahadevi or Madhuri was used during the annual Muharram procession and the owners were embroiled in illegal transfer of elephants. PETA, however, was not heard during the Bombay High Court’s proceedings.

While Vantara claims that it is rescuing elephants from captivity in circuses or illegal logging industry, more than 150 elephants have been transferred to Vantara from Northeastern India in the last few years. Recently, an investigation by an international magazine showed that sub-adult elephants were procured through questionable means in which microchips were planted right before their transfer to Vantara. On one hand, PETA along with animal rights organisations has been writing to the HPC, demanding larger scrutiny of elephant transfers. On the other, it is also running elephant rescue campaigns showcasing Vantara as the ultimate destination for rescue animals.

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