Assam government informed the state assembly on Thursday that 97 domestic elephants have been sent to other states since 2006.
Replying to a question by leader of opposition (LoP) Debabrata Saikia, environment and forest minister Chandra Mohan Patowary informed the ongoing winter session that the pachyderms were sent out after getting approval from forest officials.
Documents presented by Patowary stated that 57 of these elephants were sent to Bihar while others got shifted to other states including West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Odisha.
While religious purpose was mentioned as the reason for transfer for some elephants, the records didn’t show why most of the other pachyderms were shifted to other states.
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Documents showed that most elephants were transferred from Doomdooma forest division.
The list included Joymala, a female elephant which was transferred to a Tamil Nadu temple in 2011 and was in the news in recent months after allegations by animal rights activists about it being tortured by authorities there.
Following release of videos alleging mistreatment of the elephant, Assam government had sent a team to Tamil Nadu to bring her back.
{{/usCountry}}Following release of videos alleging mistreatment of the elephant, Assam government had sent a team to Tamil Nadu to bring her back.
{{/usCountry}}In September, Assam government filed a petition in Gauhati high court seeking Joymala’s custody. The Tamil Nadu government, however, told Madras high court that it had no intentions of sending the elephant back to Assam.
Amid the tussle between the state governments, the union ministry for environment, forest and climate change also tweeted a video on September 14 stating Joymala was “hale and hearty” and was being given “good care”.
“The elephants were sent to other states for a period of 2-3 years. Although these are domestic animals belonging to private owners, the forest department has been communicating with different states governments from time to time to bring them back to Assam,” Patowary replied in assembly on Thursday.
Replying to another question by Congress MLA Rekibuddin Ahmed, the forest minister informed that since 2012, a total of 80 animals have been transferred to zoos in other parts of the country from the state zoo based in Guwahati and 83 animals were received from them under an exchange programme.
The list of animals transferred out include 3 Royal Bengal Tigers, 4 Himalayan Black Bears and 6 rhinos, while the animals received include 5 Asiatic lions, 2 African lions, 1 giraffe and 4 striped hyenas.
The state zoo transferred two black panthers last year and two one-horned rhinos this year to Gujarat based Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre.
The records presented in the assembly didn’t show any exchange of animals to the Assam zoo in lieu of those four animals.
Patowary said the animals were transferred to the zoo in Gujarat and other zoos as per approval of Central Zoo Authority and provisions of Wildlife Protection Act.