Quash order to send mahouts for training in Thailand: Plea
CHENNAI: A petition has been filed in the Madras High Court praying for quashing the TN government's order to send 13 mahouts and assistants, along with forest department officials, to undergo training at a facility in Thailand for handling elephants.
Activist and founder of the Indian Centre for Animal Rights and Education S Muralidharan filed the petition. He said TN had the best of the elephant camps in India and the pachyderms were being handled by members of the Malasar and Irular tribes. If sent to the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre in Thailand, they might not learn much because of the challenges in communication.
As such, the impugned GO should be quashed and the money meant for the programme be utilised for providing incentives to mahouts. The petitioner also prayed the court to pass orders to invite Thailand veterinarians, instead, to train the State’s forest veterinarians; set up elephant speciality hospitals in all the forest camps or establish a wildlife veterinary college hospital and a research centre for medicine.