Can Kerala donate an elephant to Karnataka? Elephant transfer rules explained
The story so far: Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Sivakumar has written to Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan seeking his support to facilitate the donation of
The story so far: Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Sivakumar has written to Kerala Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan seeking his support to facilitate the donation of a female elephant for the Kollur Mookambika Temple in Udupi, Karnataka, to be used in traditional religious ceremonies and temple rituals. The Kerala Government had earlier turned down a request from the Telangana Chief Minister, who sought a camp elephant from Kerala. Legal provisions governing the transfer or transport of elephants The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change had brought out the Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024, by invoking Section 63 of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, which grants the Central Government the statutory authority to make rules for carrying out the provisions of the Act. The Rules cover the transfer and transportation of the elephants, both within the State in which the animals are kept or to other States. In both cases, the Chief Wildlife Warden is the statutory authority responsible for deciding on applications for the transport or transfer of elephants, which are included in Schedule One of the Act. What does the Act say? Section 43 of the Act notes that no person who possesses a captive animal, animal article, trophy or uncured trophy, for which he has a certificate of ownership, shall transfer by way of sale or offer for sale or by any other mode of consideration of commercial nature.
If a person intends to transfer or transport an animal or wildlife articles from the State in which he resides to another State or acquires by transfer from outside the State, such transfers or transports shall be reported to the Chief Wildlife Warden, within whose jurisdiction the transfer or transport is effected, within thirty days of the transfer or transport. Provisions introduced by the Rules The Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024, which were published by the Ministry on February 24, 2024, put in place the provisions that govern the transfer and transport of elephants. The basic premise of the Rules is that only those elephants for which their owner had obtained an ownership certificate before February 24, 2024, the date on which the Ministry published the rules, shall be eligible to be transferred or transported both within the State or outside the State. The Rules further state that only those elephants, whose genetic profile has been entered in the electronic monitoring application of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, shall be permitted to be transferred or transported. The conditions under which the person possessing the ownership certificate of the elephant can seek the transfer or transport of the animal have also been listed in the Rules.
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