Madras High Court moved to rescue tortured Madurai elephant

The first bench, comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose, on Monday ordered a notice to Indira of Pandiya Vellalar Street in Madurai, who owns the elephant, the Commissioner of HR&CE, and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden, Department of Forest, returnable by two weeks.

The petitioner S Muralidharan, who runs Incare, an outfit involved in animal welfare, contended that while he was in Madurai on January 01, 2018, he was witness to an elephant being taken around and made to beg. On seeing the mahout’s cruelty towards the animal, he lodged a complaint with the local police. But there was no response. Enquires revealed that Malachi, the elephant is from Andamans and its original owner, Masan, gifted it to Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple. She had handed over the elephant to Indira, wife of Lakshmanan, a mahout of Meenakshi Amman Temple on June 17, 2007. But, Indira used it for begging and for parading it in marriage functions, the petitioner said.

Citing several incidents where Malachi had run amok unable to adjust to a life in a busy town and how her tamers in Kerala tried to abduct it, the petitioner said, “In 2016, the mahout while riding Malachi had touched an overhead electrical wire and consequently died, while Malachi, who received an electric shock had miraculously survived”.

Noting that a government order issued on September 11, 2002 had banned temples, private individuals and organization from keeping elephants, the petitioner, said the Department of Forests was at fault for failing to confiscate Malachi. While the department of forests has fined Indira several times for violating rules, it has never gone into the aspect of how a private individual can own an elephant.

This raises the suspicion as to whether Forest department officials are wilfully violating the law and, in the process, make money, the petitioner submitted. The petitioner sought the court to withdraw custody of the elephant from Indira and hand it over to the Hindu Religious charitable Endowments Department for its upkeep in Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple.