The Kerala High Court today will hear two pleas seeking the release of 2 wild elephants and 5 tigers captured from the Palakkad and Wayanad districts of the state and presently kept in captivity by the Forest department.
The petition is listed before Justice Shaji P Chaly who claimed that the captivity of the two tuskers PT 7 and PM 2 and the tigers were illegal as it was in violation of the provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.
The petitioners, Angels Nair general secretary of NGO Animal Legal Force Integration, and Mini Sudhil claims to be animal welfare enthusiast, and have contended that the two tuskers are being subjected to harsh and rigorous training to tame them into becoming ‘kumki’ elephants.
‘Kumki’ elephants are captive pachyderms used in operations for trapping and capturing other elephants.
Therefore, they have contended that elephants are highly protected species and included in scheduled-I of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972.
Sudhil stated in his plea that “capturing, training, taming, hurting, teasing, etc of the species included in the schedule are punishable offenses and any person committing such offenses is liable to be punished with an imprisonment of 3 to 7 years.”
The pleas stated that PT 7 elephant was captured in January from the Dhoni Forest area in Palakkad and PM 2 was tranquilized and caught from Wayanad. Besides the release of the animals, the two petitions also seek the quashing of a 2018 Kerala government order permitting the training and use of ‘kumki’ elephants.
