Madhuri
Kolhapur : The Supreme Court on Friday “dismissed with costs of Rs 25,000’’ an application filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) India for its intervention to restore elephant Madhuri (also known as Mahadevi) from a Math in Kolhapur to Vantara’s Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust, in Jamnagar , or to a facility in Karnataka. The Math, where Madhuri had lived for over three decades, had last year filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against a July 16, 2025 judgment of the Bombay high court which had directed Madhuri’s transfer to Vantara, being a “a specialised rehabilitation facility especially for elephants, for long-term care’’ after the SC appointed High Powered Committee (HPC) had found her suffering from various health conditions. After several more meetings, including a joint proposal, the Math in June 2026 proposed to rehabilitate Madhuri at its own premises, which Peta said it objected to. The Math proposed improvements to its facility and on Sept 9, the HPC observing that Madhuri was “clinically stable, active and of satisfactory mobility’’ ordered her transfer back to the Math’s facility at Nandani, Kolhapur, from Jamnagar. On Sept 11, she was shifted back to Kolhapur, where she remains after Friday’s SC order on Peta’s plea.
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PETA said the elephant had been taken away from her serene surroundings. The SC bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran said that after hearing the counsel in the matter and going through the record it “finds no good ground to entertain the miscellaneous application’’. The SC that directed the “amount of Rs 25,000 shall be deposited by the applicant (Peta) with the Swasthishri Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswami Sanstha, Math, Kolhapur”. The apex court said, the amount shall be utilized for Madhuri @ Mahadevi’s welfare. The SC on Friday said, “pending applications if any” also stand disposed of.
Madhuri was in Sept taken to the Math’s facility at Nandani in Kolhapur following SC-appointed expert panel’s orders. The Animal rights organisation had approached the SC recently saying the elephant was “tethered to a post alone’’and sought directions to transfer Madhuri for her rehabilitation at Vantara or, in the alternative, at the ‘Elephant Care Facility’ of the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, Karnataka. The SC had last July upheld the transfer ordered by the HC and sought its compliance. The Math then submitted a new proposal to house Madhuri in Kolhapur in a satellite rehab facility that Vantara could create. Download the TOI App.
The SC last Sept directed such a proposal be placed before the HPC.