KOCHI: The expert committee formed by the Kerala High Court to look into the welfare of wild elephants PT7 has filed a report indicting the chief wildlife warden (CWW) of making undue delay in capturing and shifting the elephant.
The report stated: “Though the action is justified, the chief wildlife warden failed to duly incorporate the specific reason while ordering the capture of a Schedule 1 animal. There was also undue delay on his part to take appropriate decisions whether the elephant should be kept in captivity or released.”
The committee also advised keeping the elephant in captivity with appropriate welfare measures in place.
The court appointed the committee based on a petition alleging that the forest department did not try options such as radio collaring and translocating the elephant into an alternative forest. Instead, the elephant was tranquillized and taken into captivity.
The committee of experts consisting of Dr P S Easa, O P Kaler, and Dr M Ananda Kumar visited the site of PT 7 where it is kept in the kraal in Dhoni. The report stated that there were two proceedings of the Chief Wildlife Warden for the capture of the PT 7 elephant.
In both these proceeding orders, the necessary justifications for the capture of a Schedule 1 species as mandated in Section 11(1)(a) of the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 were not given. The Chief Wildlife Warden may be cautioned for having failed to duly incorporate this. The Chief Wildlife Warden issued the orders to retain the elephant in captivity only on May 17 after a gap of four months. There seems to be an undue delay on the part of the Chief Wildlife Warden in taking a decision on whether to release the animal or retain it in captivity.
The CWW also issued an order constituting a committee to take a decision on the possibility of releasing the elephant back to its natural habitat/deep forests. This order was issued about five months after the capture of the elephant PT 7. The committee had never met till the visit of the Expert Committee.
Regarding the health condition of the elephant, the expert committee informed the court that there is an impairment to its left eye. There is partial cloudiness but a mere corneal opacity of this nature may not impair vision. There was no palpebral reflex in the left eye when objects (like pens) were waved close to the eye. It is concluded that there is near unilateral blindness.