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It adjourned the petitions to Dec 4. It further noted that the list maintained by the wildlife department might not be up to date and that the court could not wait for it to be updated.
“A community that does not take care of its captive animals can never be called civilised, and no amount of excuses can justify actions to the contrary,” the bench observed. The court further said it was the responsibility of the system to ensure that captive animals were treated with care and compassion, and that this responsibility could not be left to individual citizens to lodge complaints or pursue litigation. The district collectors shall submit the details collected to the chief wildlife warden within one week thereafter. The court was considering petitions alleging gross abuse, torture and mismanagement of captive elephants. The bench directed that the information collected should include the name of each elephant, its registration number, if registered, the owner’s name, details of the ownership certificate, the name of the person in possession of the elephant and any other identifying details, including the presence of an embedded microchip and its registration number. The court clarified that the directions would apply to all captive elephants, whether owned by devaswoms, other religious institutions or private individuals. During the hearing, the court observed that the need to maintain captive elephants with dignity and kindness stemmed not merely from constitutional or statutory prescriptions but also from inherent humanism. “The endeavour of this court is to get control over the situation by ensuring that the statutory requirements are implicitly met. But before that, it certainly requires a full list of all captive elephants in Kerala, whether they are registered or otherwise,” the bench observed. Accordingly, it directed the district collectors to obtain the details of captive elephants through village officers in their respective jurisdictions.
The chief wildlife warden shall compile the information and place the report before the court within a further week, a bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Basant Balaji ordered. Kochi : The high court on Tuesday directed all district collectors in the state to collect details of every captive elephant in their respective jurisdictions through village officers within two weeks.