CHENNAI: The Madras High Court (MHC) has directed the State to consider the objections raised, in a holistic manner while framing guidelines to maintain the elephants in all the temples of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Petitioner S. Muralidharan moved the MHC seeking to direct the government to ensure all the temples in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry should house their elephants in large enclosures surrounded by natural settings.

The case was listed before the first division bench comprising Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy.

The petitioner contended that all the temples must provide water pool facilities exclusively for their elephants.

The temple administration must provide the female elephants with the company of the male elephants from any of the elephant camps maintained by the forest department, submitted the petitioner.

Additional Advocate General (AAG) J Ravindran appeared for the State submitted that a committee was constituted to frame the guidelines to maintain the elephants and placed the framed guidelines before the bench.

The Puducherry government submitted that it is following the guidelines issued by the Union government.

However, the petitioner submitted that he has given objection with regard to the said guidelines.

After the submission, the bench directed the State to consider the said objection given by the petitioner in a holistic manner and take a decision upon it, within three months and disposed of the petition.