Kerala HC saves ‘rice stealing’ elephant from people  

By PTI

KOCHI: The Kerala High on Thursday placed on maintain the state authorities’s order to tranquilise and seize a wild bull elephant named ‘Arikomban’ because it used to raid ration outlets and homes for rice, its favorite meals.

A bench of Justices A Okay Jayasankaran Nambiar and Gopinath P in a particular late night sitting issued the route on a PIL moved by two animal rights teams — People for Animals (PFA), Trivandum Chapter and the Walking Eye Foundation for Animal Advocacy.

The bench stayed until March 29 the Chief Wildlife Warden’s (CWW) order to tranquilise and seize the tusker, however allowed the forest division officers to trace the elephant until that date, advocate Bhanu Thilak, who appeared for the petitioner organisations, mentioned.

The petitioner organisations, represented by Thilak and Prasanth S R, claimed of their plea that CWW’s order was “illegal and unscientific”.

They contended that underneath the order, authorised as ‘Operation Arikomban’, to tranquilise and seize the 40-year-old elephant which roams round Chinnakanal and close by locations in Idukki district of Kerala and to maintain it underneath captivity at Kodanad elephant camp.

“The said order has not been published in the gazette yet and is being dealt with in confidentiality and secrecy by the authorities concerned. The order passed by the Chief Wildlife Warden suffers from patent illegality and the same is unscientific and is against the spirit of the law in existence,” their joint plea mentioned.

They contended earlier than the bench that welfare of the animal and a scientific strategy was paramount whereas passing orders aspiring to tranquilise and transfer the animal from a selected place.

The petitioners’ have urged the courtroom to challenge an order directing the state authorities and its forest division to translocate and rehabilitate Arikomban to an alternate deep forest utilizing scientific strategies inflicting minimal trauma to it within the occasion of tranquilising and capturing it.

They have additionally urged the courtroom to direct the state to not hold the tusker in captivity within the elephant cage at Kodanad.

The courtroom will hear the matter once more on March 29.
 

KOCHI: The Kerala High on Thursday placed on maintain the state authorities’s order to tranquilise and seize a wild bull elephant named ‘Arikomban’ because it used to raid ration outlets and homes for rice, its favorite meals.

A bench of Justices A Okay Jayasankaran Nambiar and Gopinath P in a particular late night sitting issued the route on a PIL moved by two animal rights teams — People for Animals (PFA), Trivandum Chapter and the Walking Eye Foundation for Animal Advocacy.

The bench stayed until March 29 the Chief Wildlife Warden’s (CWW) order to tranquilise and seize the tusker, however allowed the forest division officers to trace the elephant until that date, advocate Bhanu Thilak, who appeared for the petitioner organisations, mentioned.googletag.cmd.push(perform() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );

The petitioner organisations, represented by Thilak and Prasanth S R, claimed of their plea that CWW’s order was “illegal and unscientific”.

They contended that underneath the order, authorised as ‘Operation Arikomban’, to tranquilise and seize the 40-year-old elephant which roams round Chinnakanal and close by locations in Idukki district of Kerala and to maintain it underneath captivity at Kodanad elephant camp.

“The said order has not been published in the gazette yet and is being dealt with in confidentiality and secrecy by the authorities concerned. The order passed by the Chief Wildlife Warden suffers from patent illegality and the same is unscientific and is against the spirit of the law in existence,” their joint plea mentioned.

They contended earlier than the bench that welfare of the animal and a scientific strategy was paramount whereas passing orders aspiring to tranquilise and transfer the animal from a selected place.

The petitioners’ have urged the courtroom to challenge an order directing the state authorities and its forest division to translocate and rehabilitate Arikomban to an alternate deep forest utilizing scientific strategies inflicting minimal trauma to it within the occasion of tranquilising and capturing it.

They have additionally urged the courtroom to direct the state to not hold the tusker in captivity within the elephant cage at Kodanad.

The courtroom will hear the matter once more on March 29.