HC upholds animal rights over religious customs

The Bombay high court on Wednesday upheld the transfer of an elephant named Mahadevi from a Jain math in Kolhapur to a Gujarat sanctuary, holding that the animal's right to a dignified life outweighed religious customs.

- Karuna Nidhi

Swasthishri Jinsen Bhattarak, a Kolhapur-based trust belonging to the Jain discipline, follows the tradition of keeping an elephant in the math for religious programmes, and has had Mahadevi there since 1992. However, animal rights body PETA, represented by advocates Vishal Kanade and Prateek Pai from Keystone Partners, made a representation on its plight on October 31, 2023.

Consequently, the high-powered committee (HPC) on elephant transfers—set up by the Tripura high court and subsequently given pan-India jurisdiction by the Supreme Court—passed an order on December 28, 2023, for the transfer of the elephant from the Kolhapur trust to the Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT), a Gujarat-based body that operates a specialised and well-equipped elephant care centre to rehabilitate injured, abandoned and rescued elephants.

What the Jain trust said