AGARTALA: Rajmati (60) and Laxmimala (7) are on a road trip. Only that they are not humans but part of the herd of 12 captive elephants which is being transported from Tripura to Gujarat for lifelong care.
The 12, including 11 females from North Tripura, set out for Jamnagar in Gujarat on Friday after their owners surrendered them to the state (Tripura) forest department in compliance with an order of the high court of Tripura.
Sources said the elephants are being relocated to the rescue centre of Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust in Jamnagar. The domesticated elephant herd will take at least 17 days on trucks to reach the destination and has already crossed the border of South Assam and entered Meghalaya. Each elephant is travelling in a single truck along with a forest official and a mahout.
Wildlife officials here said many mahouts in Tripura voluntarily surrendered their elephants which have grown too old due to prohibitions under the Wildlife Protection Act from engaging in laborious jobs, strenuous tasks, tourism activities or processions. The amended regulation has also mandated proper fodder and housing for elephants.
"We have been using elephants for our livelihood for the past 40 years but in recent years, several compliances were put in place, and domesticating elephants now has become a luxury for us, which compelled me to relinquish the ownership though it is very painful. All my family members are in distress after Gopalkali (name of the elephant) left," said Jamir Ali, a resident of Rangauti, a village in Kailashahar bordering Bangladesh.
Tripura high court last year, in response to a public interest litigation, seeking a direction restraining the transfer and transportation of captive-bred elephants from northeast India, particularly Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, directed that the animals be sent to the elephant camp of a charitable trust ostensibly engaged in the rescue and rehabilitation of wildlife.
The high court directed the high-power committee constituted by the Supreme Court to oversee the transfer of the elephants.
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