Arunachal Pradesh authorities on Tuesday released 10 elephants from Gujarat-bound trucks destined for Jamnagar after the student activists protested. The transports also had no-objection certificates from the chief wildlife wardens of both Arunachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
According to the documents, trucks had come from Namsai in Arunachal with 10 sub-adult elephants that were domesticated and purchased from a few owners in Chowkham in Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh by the Radhe Krishna Temple Welfare Trust of Jamnagar, Gujarat. The trust claimed to have adequate facilities with a hospital to house more than 150 elephants. It also claimed to have more than 300 qualified people to take care of the nutritional needs of the elephants.
More than 100 student activists of the Adi Students’ Union intercepted the trucks at Pasighat, the headquarters of the East Siang district.
Animal rights activists have been raising their voices against the transportation of elephants being caught from the wild and tortured in the process of their training in inhuman conditions. They have also been flagging the cases of ill-treated elephants at temples in southern and western India.
