15 Nov : The Centre has said no permit has been issued to Assam for “domestication of wild elephants for government duties”, even as the state has asked for lifting of the ban on trapping marauding wild tuskers to contain the man-animal conflict there.
“The Wildlife Act permits only capture of wild elephant in case it threatens human life. No such permission has been given to Assam in recent times,” A N Prasad, Director, Project Elephant (PE) said.
Prasad, who is also the Inspector General of Forests, made the remark when asked about the recent reported statement of Assam Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain that the state government needs to “acquire wild elephants and domesticate them for government duties”.
He also dismissed the claim by Hussain that “trapping wild pachyderms will also help contain the man-elephant conflict”.
Assam has been asking the Centre for lifting the ban on using ‘kunki’ (domesticated) elephants to trap wild ones which were destroying foodcrops.
“We have placed before the Central government the need to resume ‘mela shikaar’ to capture marauding wild elephants that destroy houses and crops,” Hussain had said during a forest ministers’ conclave in New Delhi recently.
‘Mela shikaar’ is a traditional method of capturing wild tuskers using domesticated and trained elephants.
In response to another question whether domesticated elephants from Assam are being sold off to temples in Bihar and south India, Prasad said the Wildlife Act prohibits sale and purchase of pachyderm and the only way temples can acquire elephants for their use is by way of a ‘gift’.
There have also been reports of domesticated pachyderm being taken out of the state on “transit permits” to serve in other states.
The Project Elephant Director, however, said genuine owners with the permission of the Central Wildlife Warden of the state “can take domestic elephants to any place”.
Hussain had earlier said Assam is seeking a permission to allow selling and buying of domesticated elephants, as owners sometime want to sell them off but the law restricts it.There are more than a thousand domesticated elephants in Assam and the owners sometimes find it difficult to maintain them.
‘Mela shikaar’, which involves trapping a wild elephant while riding a trained pachyderm, was banned in 1982 after the tuskers were brought under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
Another ban by the Supreme Court in 1994 on use of domesticated elephants in the timber trade rendered them jobless, which allegedly led to their sale to south Indian temples.
There were 5,281 wild elephants in Assam according to the 2007-08 census and 1,290 domesticated pachyderm according to the data made available in 2000.