Review ‘inadequate’ captive elephant transfer rules: Jairam Ramesh tells Bhupinder Yadav

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJune 26, 2024

Senior Congress leader and former Union minister Jairam Ramesh has urged Union minister for environment, forest and climate change, Bhupinder Yadav to have a second look at the Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024 in the light of the objections raised by the animal welfare organizations.

The Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Act, 2022 was notified on December 20, 2022. Subsequently, the Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024 were notified on March 4, 2024, following which several animal welfare organizations wrote to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on April 1, 2024, expressing their concern on the rules.

In his letter to Bhupendra Yadav, Ramesh said he was disappointed to see such “fundamental flaws” in the Captive Elephant (Transport or Transport) Rules 2024 even though the ministry took more t than a year to formulate them.

Ramesh pointed out that there were gaps in the regulation on the transfer and transport of captive elephants and demanded that the government take action to prevent its misuse.

“First, you will very well recall that I had my speech in the Rajya Sabha on December 8, 2022, on the Wildlife Protection (Amendment) Bill, 2022 objected to the broad exception being introduced to the non-commercial transfer of elephants created by the Bill for another purpose,” Ramesh said.

“The rules as presently drafted, don’t close the route for both wild capture and commercial trade of captive elephants, especially from the Northeast to the rest of the country. These are not imaginary fears as there have been recent examples of commercial transactions of elephants from Arunachal Pradesh to Kerala, Odisha and Gujarat,” Ramesh also said.

Ramesh said there have been serious attempts to transfer wild-caught elephants to these states from the Northeast under the garb of captive and donation.

Ramesh said the ministry didn’t clarify what constitutes “any other purpose” in the elephant transfer rules despite making such a promise in the Parliament.

“This leaves wide gaps for misuse,” he said.

The rules were notified on March 14, 2024, almost one and a half years after the 2022 law was notified. The ambiguity of the clause related to elephant transfer was also debated in the Parliamentary Standing Committee meeting.

He agreed to having an exemption on religious grounds after the ministry said more clarity would be provided in the rules, once the bill becomes an act.

After the rules were notified, a group of animal welfare organisations approached Yadav with suggestions to further modify the rules to prevent atrocities on elephants. One of their suggestions was also to define ‘any other purpose’ and specify exclusions for transfer.

Ramesh’s letter comes amidst concerns among environmentalists and wildlife specialists on the transport of hundreds of elephants from the Northeast to Vantara, a Reliance-owned zoo at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

More than 12 captive elephants have been transferred from Arunachal Pradesh to Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom coming up on Reliance premises at Jamnagar in Gujarat.

Spreading over 280 acres, the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom in Jamnagar is projected to become one of the world’s biggest zoos housing over 100 species of animals and birds from India and the rest of the world. It is a “pet project” of Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani.