You worship elephant, take care of it: SC orders clinics, health checks for tuskers

"You worship the elephant. Take care it,." The Supreme Court said on Tuesday as it directed the Union government to frame guidelines in coordination with states for setting up specialised elephant clinics and make periodic health check-ups mandatory for domesticated and tethered elephants across the country.The top court also ordered that medical records be maintained for every elephant and stressed that its immediate focus was on ensuring the welfare of animals kept by private owners, temples, forest departments and other institutions.A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana issued the directions while hearing a 2014 public interest litigation concerning the captivity, trafficking, treatment and rehabilitation of elephants in India.The court directed the government to create an effective and transparent mechanism for establishing well-equipped elephant clinics and said all owners of captive elephants must take the animals for periodic examinations. A monitoring committee will ensure that necessary treatment is provided regularly.The court also asked the Captive Elephant Health Care and Welfare Committee, constituted under Project Elephant by the Environment Ministry, to submit a report on measures being taken for captive elephants and prescribe minimum standards for their housing and upkeep. The CJI-led Bench further sought a comprehensive status report on DNA profiling of more than 2,700 captive elephants in India, including those held privately and those in rehabilitation centres.The court wants to know whether profiling has been completed and whether the information has been updated in the database, with the exercise intended to track elephants and prevent illegal transfers.The figures before the court showed that 1,678 captive elephants are with private individuals, 786 with forest departments, 358 in rehabilitation centres, 96 with temples, 63 in zoos and 47 with circuses.During the hearing, Senior Advocate Aparna Bhat, appearing for the petitioner, raised concerns over continuing cruelty and urged the court to prohibit the bringing of new elephants into captivity.She also questioned the origin of captive elephants and sought details of prosecutions involving wild-caught animals.Senior Advocate K Parameshwar, appearing for a temple association and an elephant owners’ association from Kerala, urged the bench to distinguish temple elephants from circus elephants."Temple-owned elephants are not the same as circus elephants. I am not saying that every captive elephant in Kerala is maintained up to the required standard. But the entirety of temple elephants in Kerala cannot be painted with a broad brush. This is an extremely sensitive issue so far as Kerala is concerned," he said.The bench clarified that it was not presently examining whether temples could own elephants or questions relating to religious rights.Justice Bagchi said, "We are not going into whether a temple can possess an elephant. We are not going into any personal rights or religious rights. What we need to do is harmoniously deal with religious rights and the other laws operating in the field"."Let us say that in a temple, an elephant is used for a religious procession. Its use must be regulated in terms of hours," he added.The court also acknowledged the difficulties involved in releasing long-captive elephants into the wild."These elephants may no longer be capable of surviving there (in the wild). Most of them have never been in such an environment," the bench observed.The CJI, meanwhile, flagged the need for accountability among those keeping captive elephants and asked whether a mechanism could track their owners and establish whether the animals were being properly cared for.Towards the end of the hearing, the bench delivered a pointed message to the temple and elephant owners’ associations, "You worship the elephant. Take care of the elephant. If you balance the two".Later, Parameshwar assured the court, "We are servants of the deity. We respect our God," the Bench responded, "This is why we are saying that your submissions should have reflection in real life".The Centre and the concerned committees will now have to place reports before the court on healthcare, housing standards, monitoring and DNA profiling.The proceedings are expected to further shape the regulatory framework for existing captive elephants, while questions of ownership and religious use have been left open for now.- EndsPublished On: Aug 18, 2026 16:54 IST