The last four of five young elephants sent from Assam to temples in Tamil Nadu this month reached their new homes late last week, completing a transfer the Gauhati High Court declined to stop but has asked Assam to account for, in a detailed affidavit on the animals’ welfare, before it hears the case again on 15 October.
Supreme Court of India
Madhuri, a female elephant known in Kolhapur as Mahadevi, is returning home after 13 months at Vantara in Jamnagar, Gujarat, under a court-backed order that keeps Vantara’s vets checking on her every fortnight.
Vantara will not be able to bring a new animal onto its Jamnagar campus without written approval from a five-person council with no seat for anyone who works there.
The Guwahati-based conservation group Aaranyak has weighed in on the fight over how large a protective buffer should surround Kaziranga National Park, as Assam moves to shrink the zone from its current 10 kilometres down to as little as one.