Illegal Trafficking of Assam Elephant, 320 Transported Outside the State

Guwahati, June 28, 2019:

‘Indian Elephant’ is a Schedule-I animal under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and section 9 of the Act prohibits the capture of elephants from the wild. Capturing of wild elephants is permitted only under very limited circumstances as provided in Section 11 and 12 of the Act.

Senior Counsel Bhaskar Dev Konwar who has been taking up the cause to stop the transportation of captive elephants has said that in total 320 elephants have been transported from the State of Assam to outside and as per the report of the Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit letter dated 07.12.2007 bearing No. A/Sil/WL/52/Captive elephants/2355-56, corrective steps ought to have been taken for stopping such transfer/transportation and to bring back the captive elephants after the expiry of the permission.

[caption id="attachment_34246" align="alignnone" width="660"] Official documents[/caption]

Also Read: Gauhati HC Bench Says Safety of Elephants is of &Paramount Importance

Assam immediately requires Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules, the draft of which is pending Cabinet approval.

In the state of Assam till 30.12.2018, there were 905 captive elephants in the records of the Forest Department.

In most of the cases, Ownership Certificates (OC) have been issued to the owners of the elephants and in other cases provisional ownership certificates. All these elephants have been implanted with micro-chip provided by the DFO of Assam State Zoo, who is the custodian of the chips which contains the name of the elephants, sex, age, the status of ownership certificate, and, name and address of the owner.

[caption id="attachment_34247" align="alignnone" width="660"] Official Documents[/caption]

The Forest Division of Golaghat has the highest 80 numbers of captive elephants, Jorhat-79, Sivasagar-76, Nagaon South-73, Nagaon (T)- 10, Nagaon WL-3, Doomdooma-61, Cachar-38, Digboi-30, Lakhimpur-38, Eastern Assam WL-116 Eastern Assam WL-116, North Kamrup-45 Kamrup West-20, Kamrup East-25, Guwahati WL-11, Sonitpur-31, FDTP-Manas- 41, Managaldai WL-32, and Tinsukia WL-11., Western Assam WL-15, Assam State Zoo-3, Dhansiri-5, Dhemaji-11, Dibrugarh-6, Hailakandi-19, Karimganj-25 and the Forest Division of Dima Hasao has only 1 captive elephant.

The modus operandi adopted by the elephant owners seeking to sell elephants outside the State is ingenious, because Section 43 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 regulates the transfer of animals, etc. by way of sale or by any other mode of consideration of commercial nature.

The owners usually request the Forest Department to permit the elephants to be moved to another State where they would be engaged in work or for religious purposes. On furnishing an affidavit by the owner that the elephant is intended to be taken outside Assam and on receipt of the NOC from the PCCF and Chief Wildlife Warden, permission u/s 40(2) of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is accorded to the owner by the PCCF (WL) and Chief Wildlife Warden Assam for transporting the elephant as requested by the owner.

Once the elephants are outside the State of Assam, the Forest Department loses its jurisdiction or has no mechanism to monitor the terms and conditions of transport even if the elephants are sold off.

The Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit, by letter dated 07.12.2007 bearing No. A/Sil/WL/52/Captive elephants/2355-56 wrote to the PCCF (WL), Assam it has been observed that the captive elephants which were issued ownership certificate after October 2003 which were Government property as per WL (P) Act have been sold.

The unit submitted that the total number of elephants registered till 2007 in the State was 956, OC issued 539, and number of elephants microchipped – 807, for the period of 2003-2007 259 elephants were transferred outside the State.

The highest number of transfer during the Year 2006 was 67. The Doomdooma Division for the period 2003-2007 transferred 108 elephants followed by Nagaon South-23, Digboi-17, Dibrugarh-3, Golaghat-10, Tinsukia WL-3, Sivasagar-20, EAWL-15, Dhemaji-10, Lakhimpur-31, Sonitpur-2 and Kamrup West-7.

The report of the Wing also revealed that 14 tusks, mostly babies of 4-6 years old had been sent outside within 3-4 years from Doomdooma Forest Division to Bihar alone and 18 elephants were displayed for sale in Sonpur Mela.

Prior to 2003, there were not much transportation of elephants from the State to outside. After the Year 2007, the nos. of elephants transported outside the State are 2008-3, 2009-15, 2010-nil, 2011-3, 2012-8, 2013-6, 2014-20, 2015-6, 2017-nil and 2018-nil.

In total 61 elephants have been transported to the outside State and none of them were returned back to Assam.

Surprisingly the Forest Department has also not initiated against any of the owners for cancellation of their ownership certificates and to bring back the borrowed elephants.