Joymala’s case flags gaps in private ownership norms for elephants

The ongoing dispute between the Governments of Tamil Nadu and Assam over the alleged mistreatment of a temple elephant named Joymala, has brought into focus the prevailing lacunae over private ownership of elephants in India.

Why private ownership of elephants is a concern?

• Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Assam, Tripura and Madhya Pradesh account for 96% of elephants in captivity without ownership certificates.
• Captive elephants are provided a poor diet and inadequate food. Due to a limited diet, elephants can suffer from intestinal infections, lung-related injections, or impactions.
• It also leads to an increase in “black marketing” of elephants.
• Other important threats to Elephants
  • Escalation of poaching
  • Habitat loss
  • Human-elephant conflict
  • Mistreatment in captivity
  • Abuse due to elephant tourism
  • Rampant mining, Corridor destruction

Why it is happening?

• Lack of law enforcement or governance of the private ownership of elephants in many States.

About Asian Elephants

• There are about 50,000 - 60000 Asian elephants in the world. More than 60% of the population is held in India.
• There are three subspecies of Asian elephant which are the Indian, Sumatran and Sri Lankan.
  • The Indian subspecies has the widest range and accounts for most of the remaining elephants on the continent.
• Protection Status
  • IUCN Red List: Endangered
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972: Schedule I
  • CITES: Appendix I

 About Project Elephant

• It is a flagship programme of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
• It was launched in 1992 as a Centrally-sponsored scheme.
• The project aims-
  • To protect elephants, their habitat & corridors.
  • To address issues of man-animal conflict.
  • The welfare of captive elephants.
• It addresses issues of man-animal conflict and welfare of domesticated elephants.
• The elephant numbers have not increased or decreased drastically but there is increasing pressure on the elephant habitats.
• The elephant census is conducted once in 5 years under the aegis of Project elephant.
  • The direct elephant counting method is based on the sightings of elephants.
  • In the indirect method, surveyors follow a dung decay formula for arriving at population estimation which is being used by Tamil Nadu and Karnataka at present.
    • A variation of about 8% to 9% has been noticed between the two methods.