Zoo elephants to be unchained after MP High Court order

Elephants Moti and Champa will be unchained nearly after seven years following the directions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court to Indore Municipal Corporation to construct an open enclosure for them.

Elephants Moti and Champa will be unchained nearly after seven years following the directions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court to Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) on Monday to construct an open enclosure for them.

HT Image

Both Moti and Champa were chained about seven years ago because of their "volatile" nature. However, after a petition filed by an organisation working for animal rights, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the IMC-run Kamala Nehru Zoo authorities to unchain them and construct an open enclosure for them.

"Construction of an open enclosure at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh began about a week ago," zoo in-charge Uttam Yadav said.

The budget has been sanctioned by the IMC and an open enclosure is being constructed on a 1.5 acre area with a water pond as well as fountains, to enable elephants to freely roam in it, so that visitors may watch them, he said.

The elephants have been in the zoo since the last 25 years and whenever the male elephant Moti was unchained, it attacked people and had also seriously injured a mahout.