How villagers fought for an elephant

The rains in August bring joy to Kolhapur, a part of Maharashtra’s sugarcane belt. The fields thrive and people get respite from the heat that parches land and spirit. This year, the villages in the area are in mourning.

Madhuri, 36, also called Mahadevi, was transferred from her home in Nandani village to Vantara, a wildlife rehabilitation facility run by the Ambani industrialist family, in Jamnagar, Gujarat, over 1,170 km away.

Her mahout (elephant handler) Ismail Nidgun, 56, is no longer with her. “It feels like I have lost my daughter. My days are empty just like this gajshala (elephant home),” Nidgun says. Originally from Davangere in Karnataka, he had been with Madhuri for seven years.

Her transfer order came on July 28 after a Supreme Court directive. She was moved from the 1,300-year-old Jain Mutt, the Shree Digambar Jain Atishay Kshetra Vrishabhachal to Vantara, “Anant Ambani’s dream project,” as per information on the website. Anant is one of three children of Reliance chairperson Mukesh Ambani, one of the wealthiest men in the world.

On August 3, images began pouring in of thousands of people marching early in the morning, in protest, from Nandani to the Kolhapur District Collectorate, about 40 km away, appealing to get Madhuri back. “Did Ambani get only our Madhuri to take?” asks Mahavir Jugale, 56, a Nandani-based farmer.

Shopkeeper Vijay Teli, 51, in the Gandhi Chowk area, a bustling market in the village, says, “Mate pasun mula la vegla kela ahe,“ (They separated the child from her mother). Whenever the bell rings, we still think she is coming.” Madhuri wore a bell around her neck which would ring each time she ambled along. “Children used to line up to play with her,” he adds. Everyone has a Madhuri moment to share.

Points of view

On July 28, the Supreme Court upheld the July 16 Bombay High Court order to transfer the elephant to the Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT), a part of Vantara, registered in 2019. Vantara, which describes itself as being committed to “rescuing, rehabilitating, and protecting endangered species” spans 998 acres. The affidavit filed by Vantara indicates that the facility houses 238 elephants.

In the lane adjoining the Mutt, Sushila Kambhoje, 70, says, “They called Madhuri dangerous and ailing. How could she be dangerous? On the day of her farewell, 2,000 people surrounded her. Did she even hurt a single person? An ailing animal can never be active. They used all the means to take her away.” Sushila, a homemaker, remembers Madhuri from when she was three years old. The elephant, locals say, was brought to the Mutt from the Sakrebailu elephant camp, Shimoga in Karnataka in 1992.

The Mutt, which makes decisions on the socio-religious affairs of the Digambar Jain community of a few villages in Maharashtra and Karnataka, has a history of domesticating elephants for the last 400 years, say leaders in the community. Elephants have been part of religious processions, and participate in festivals like Ganeshotsav and Muharram. “We have treated her as a family member. PETA’s (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) claims that she is distressed are false,” says the financial manager of the Mutt, Shirish Herwade.

He says PETA officials visited the Mutt in 2020 and proposed moving Madhuri to Vantara. “They offered us a robotic elephant. When the Mutt refused, PETA offered us money and infrastructure development,” he adds.

PETA claims that the elephant had “untreated ailments including foot rot, overgrown nails, abscesses, arthritis and behavioural distress” says an SC-approved high-power committee (HPC) report. The HPC had been set up by the Tripura High Court in November 2022, after a lawyer, Sudipta Nath, had filed a public interest litigation seeking an inquiry into past transfers of elephants to RKTEWT.

After the public outcry, the Maharashtra government intervened, holding meetings with a delegation from Kolhapur and the Vantara team. On August 6, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced publically, “Vantara has offered to set up a satellite rehabilitation centre in Nandani and join the Maharashtra government’s application in court, requesting the return of Madhuri.“

Vantara put out a statement on social media saying, their “involvement in this matter has been limited to acting strictly in accordance to the binding directions issued by the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court.” It said Vantara’s role was simply as a caretaker to the animal.

Vantara proposed a centre in Nandani, which will include a hydrotherapy pond for joint and muscular relief, a larger water body for swimming and natural movement, laser therapy and a treatment room for physical rehabilitation, a covered night shelter, an open space for unrestricted movement without chains, a sand pit, and an on-site veterinary clinic, among other facilities.

“From the beginning these people should have used their specialists in the village itself instead of relocating the elephant,” says Sagar Shambhushete, one of the Mutt’s trustees.

The Mutt alleges that after the 2020 meeting, PETA started documenting pictures of Madhuri while socialising with the villagers.

Between the Mutt and the HPC

The Mutt’s top authority says on condition of anonymity, “PETA is less of an animal rights organisation and more of a mediator for big people.” He alleges that PETA joined hands with Vantara, who has collected animals from all over the country. The Jain Mutt had an ownership certificate under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.

PETA dismisses the claims, saying it was the decision of HPC. They also say the Mutt has disregarded wildlife protection laws on several occasions. “The temple was provided an in-person opportunity to make their case at all levels of the process, but failed,” says Khushboo Gupta, Director of Advocacy of PETA, adding this was not the first elephant taken to Vantara from Maharashtra. An elephant from Sangli district’s Vita was taken too. 

The Mutt’s stone building, with wooden interior, sees thousands of devotees from across the Kolhapur-Sangli region and from some parts of Karnataka. “When nothing worked, PETA approached the HPC; they just wanted our elephant at any cost,” says Shambhushete.

Former Judge Deepak Verma led the HPC and issued the first order on December 28, 2023. The HPC’s June 3 report suggests that PETA India highlighted the need for Madhuri’s transfer to a “scientifically managed sanctuary” such as the RKTEWT, Jamnagar.

The Mutt has also alleged that HPC’s sub-committee report findings are “biased” and “exaggerated”, and that PETA’s photographic and veterinary material “lacks context”.

The sub-committee, comprising officials from the Forest Department, visited the Mutt premises on June 12, 2024, inspected the facilities, and recommending improvements, including an opportunity for socialisation. The committee also confirmed that the elephant’s physical well-being, diet and nutrition were being maintained.

After three months, Vivek Khandekar, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), inspected the facility, making observations that the “elephant’s back and toenails are showing good improvement and she is walking properly”. He noted other improvements as well, including a daily walk of 5 to 10 km and a weekly bath in the Panchganga River.

A representative of the Mutt says, “Within three months of the first inspection in June 2024, we implemented all the recommendations made by the team.”

Protests echo through the village

The hoardings outside Nandani read: “One signature for Madhuri”. Every corner of the village is plastered with such banners. MLC Satej Patil launched an online signature petition, which received 2,04,421 signatures from across the country. “We have sent the hard copies to President Droupadi Murmu via post,” he says.

Meanwhile, a ‘Boycott Jio’ movement intensified in Kolhapur with as many as 743 villages participating. The movement, which started on social media, was later spearheaded by former MP and a farmer leader Raju Shetti. He claims, “At least 2 lakh people ported their Jio numbers to other networks.” Shetti claims PETA offered him ₹2 crore to help convince the Mutt to transfer the elephant.

Meanwhile, a letter Shetti had allegedly written in 2018 went viral. It had asked that the Madhuri be shifted to Gadchiroli animal centre until they found a mahout. Shetti says, “The Mutt approached me then to do something. But we found a mahout in a month. At the time no one was bothered, so why now?”

Vantara’s involvement

The locals and their representatives have also raised concerns over similar notices sent to several mutts in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The villagers ask whether PETA and the HPC are in the business of transferring elephants to Vantara.

In Kolhapur’s neighbouring district of Sangli, the Ganpati Panchayatan Devasthan Trust in Tasagaon say they received a phone call from a man, who claimed to be a vet with a government facility, offering to provide an unfit certificate to transfer the trust’s elephant Gauri to Vantara. “I asked him to give us a proposal in writing. In the meanwhile, Nandani’s issue flared up,” says Rajendra Patwardhan, the president of the trust in Tasagaon, who brought in the elephant in 1998.

Patwardhan says similar complaints have been filed against the Karisiddeshwara Mutt in Karnataka’s Belagavi district and Mahanteshwar Swami in Raichur. An environmentalist from Bengaluru filed a complaint with the Forest Department concerning the rehabilitation of elephants Padma from Shedbal in Maharashtra, Dhurva from Alakhnur, and Meenika from Bichale.

Conservationists see this situation as a government convenience due to limited resources. The Co-Founder of Stripes and Green Earth Foundation, Sagnik Sengupta, said, “This situation is arising because Vantara offers facilities that can aid elephants in distress, but this could be effective if there are rescue centres across the country. At the same time, the Wildlife Protection Act offers no safeguards for exotic pets. In the absence of government infrastructure, Vantara’s resources could fill critical gaps.”

Meanwhile, a Bengaluru-based wildlife conservationist, on condition of anonymity, says, “For the government, private rescue centres are the first choice to save costs. However, handing over exotic animals to private players is not viable.”

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Edited by Sunalini Mathew