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Allow team from Assam to inspect elephant Joymala, Gauhati HC orders Tamil Nadu
The row erupted over a video released by PETA allegedly showing a mahout ill-treating Joymala on the temple premises. The Tamil Nadu Forest department has denied the accusation.
GUWAHATI/CHENNAI: Amid the ongoing court tussle between two states, the Gauhati high court on Friday directed the Tamil Nadu government to allow a team from Assam to inspect Joymala, a female elephant leased by the northeastern state to the southern state a few years ago.
Hearing a petition filed by Assam government earlier this week seeking custody of Joymala, justice Suman Shyam issued the directions to the Tamil Nadu government.
“The court directed the Tamil Nadu chief secretary, additional chief secretary, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife) and the DGP to permit the team from Assam to visit the temple where Joymala is kept,” Assam advocate general Debajit Saikia said.
“The court also asked the TN government to provide adequate security to the team so that they can inspect Joymala and take stock of her health and well-being,” he added.
On Thursday, Tamil Nadu additional advocate general J Ravindran told a bench of justices M Duraiswamy and Sunder Mohan of Madras high court that the state government has no plans of sending back the Srivilliputhur temple elephant Joymala to Assam from where it was leased to Tamil Nadu.
The Tamil Nadu government’s submission came on a PIL filed before the court restraining the state from sending the elephants back following the Assam government moving the Gauhati High Court.
It started when PETA released a video last month allegedly showing a mahout ill-treating Joymala within the temple premises. The Tamil Nadu Forest department denied the charge.
PETA India official Sachin Bangera told HT that Joymala Joymala, renamed Jeymalyatha, should be sent to a rescue centre. “As a female elephant, Jeymalyatha has already suffered from being forced to live a life of isolation,” said Bangera, PETA India’s vice president of celebrity and public relations.
“On top of that, this national heritage animal has been subjected to relentless beatings. It’s high time she was sent to a rescue centre where she can get the care she deserves to start recovering from her trauma,” he added.
Assam followed up on the PETA video and sent a team to TN on September 2 to seek custody of the pachyderm. But it didn’t get any favourable response from the TN government and is still camping in Chennai.
On Wednesday, the union ministry for environment, forest and climate change also tweeted a video stating Joymala was “hale and hearty” and was being given “good care”.
Assam forest minister Chandra Mohan Patowary told the assembly on Wednesday that Joymala was transferred from Assam to Tamil Nadu in 2011 as part of an agreement between both state governments.
