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Government Order issued by the Department of Environment, Climate Change and Forests on November 21, 2022
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
A Government Order (G.O.) issued on November 21 to send six mahouts and seven cavadies (assistants to mahouts), along with four Forest Department officials, to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre (TECC) in Lampang for training and capacity building at an estimated cost of ₹50 lakh has been challenged before the Madras High Court.
When the case was listed for admission before Acting Chief Justice T. Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy on Monday, they decided to hear the matter on Wednesday along with a related case. Activist S. Muralidharan of the Indian Centre for Animal Rights and Education (INCARE) had filed the public interest litigation petition.
The petitioner contended that it was not the mahouts but the Forest Department veterinarians who required better training in treating elephants. He claimed that public money could be better spent by inviting experts from Thailand to train the veterinarians here and that the saved amount could be given as incentive to the mahouts.
In his affidavit, the petitioner stated that India had a 4,000-year-old history of taming, training and managing elephants and there were historical references of elephants having been used for threshing in the ancient city of Madurai. He said, it was the Chola Emperor who carried the art of mahoutry, along with his Army, to the whole of Southeast Asia.
At present, India had around 30,000 elephants compared to just 3,000 in Thailand. The Malasar and Irular tribes here are experts in taming elephants but the veterinary care for the elephants in the country was very poor, he complained. He lamented the absence of an elephant specialty hospital with x-ray machines and other such medical facilities.
Claiming that it was a disgrace to send Indian mahouts to learn the best practices from a tiny nation, the petitioner said, it was the veterinarians in the Forest Department who actually required training and capacity building and that it could be achieved by inviting the veterinarians from Thailand to India at a much lower cost.
Forest Department has 68 captive elephants
The G.O. under challenge, stated that the Forest Department maintains a total 68 captive elephants in four camps – Mudumalai Elephant Camp in the Nilgiris district (28), Anamalai Elephant Camp in Coimbatore district (26), Arignar Anna Zoological Park at Vandalur in Chennai (2) and Elephant Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre at M.R. Palayam in Tiruchi (7).
A total of 37 permanent mahouts (22 in Mudumalai and 15 in Anamalai) and 28 cavadies (12 in Mudumalai and 16 in Anamalai) were employed by the Forest Department to take care of the captive elephants. Apart from them, 56 mahouts as well as cavadies (21 in Mudumalai, 19 in Anamalai, two in Vandalur and 14 in MR Palayam) had also been engaged on contract basis.
These people were mostly drawn from local tribal communities and they had been training the elephants as per their traditional knowledge. The services of retired mahouts and cavadies, experienced in the art of elephant husbandry, were also utilised. However, they were not exposed to other camps which adopt best practices with modern scientific approaches. Therefore, the government had decided to train them at TECC which was a centre for research and was also at the forefront of treating sick elephants in Thailand. Established in 1993, the centre takes care of more than 50 Asian elephants. It also provides mahout training and homestay, the GO read.
Estimating the entire training expenditure to be around ₹50 lakh, the government had decided to spend the estimated cost from the Anamalai and Mudumalai Tiger Reserve Foundation Fund at the rate of ₹23.60 lakh and ₹26.40 lakh respectively. The decision was taken with the concurrence of the Finance Department.
‘Not good use of public money’
However, assailing the G.O., the PIL petitioner contended that the public money could be best spent by training the veterinarians. He also insisted that the government should either set up elephant specialty hospitals at all the four camps or establish a wildlife veterinary college hospital and research centre at MR Palayam.
He also sought a direction to the government to document the art of taming elephants, the Ayurvedic medicines administered to them and the practice of training them in a krall (wooden enclosure).
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