No Plans To Return Elephant Joymala To Assam: TN Govt Tells High Court

Additional Advocate General J Ravindran made the submission before a bench of Acting Chief Justice M Duraiswamy and Justice Sunder Mohan. The court was hearing an urgent PIL filed by N Sivaganesan, a field scientist on wildlife conservation.

Mr. Sivaganesan contended that though there were few negligible incidents of mistreatment of elephants, there was no necessity to return all the nine elephants which were presently under the custody of the Tamil Nadu government. Further, these elephants have now become accustomed to the temple and if they are taken away, it will hurt the religious sentiments of the devotees.

The petitioner also submitted that once a gift was executed in favour of a religious temple, the donor could not demand re-possession of the elephant at his whims and fancies citing few negligible incidents. There was thus no justification or reasonableness in the alleged demand of the gifted elephants attached to the religious institution after a long duration affecting the feelings and sentiments of all involved, he argued.

Rift Between the Governments

Recently, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had released a video alleging that Joymala was being tortured brutally and was being kept captive in the Andal temple in Srivalliputhur in Chennai.

After the video gathered public attention, the Assam government formed a four-member high-level committee to inspect the condition of Joymala and discuss the matter with the Tamil Nadu government and pave the way for her return to Assam.

Following this, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department shared a video stating that the elephant was doing good and was being taken care of by a team.

Case Title: N Sivaganesan v. The Secretary to Government and others