Kerala has 427 elephants without statutory ownership certificates

Kerala has a total of 427 elephants without the statutory ownership certificates. These are in the custody of various individuals and trusts associated with places of worship. This has been confirmed by the Kerala forest department in its reply to the NGO, heritage animal task force.
As per information, 427 persons had applied for ownership certificate for the elephants which they had been keeping without the required documents. The breakup of these applicants 320 are Hindus, 44 are Muslims and 63 Christians.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 4 December 2016.

The breakup of these elephants are 349 male, 74 female and four Makhanas (male elephants without tusks by birth). In addition there are 29 elephants with the Kerala forest department and these are housed at Kottur, Karulayi, Kodanad and Konni elephant camps, without statutory ownership certificates.
As to the devaswom boards - Guruvayur Devaswom has 52 elephants, of which 19 have no ownership certificates. The Travancore Devaswom Board has 32 elephants and none of them have any ownership certificate. Cochin Devaswom Board has 11 elephants, all without certificates while Malabar Devaswom Board has five elephants, two of which have no ownership certificates.
Moreover, the two elephants of Padmanabhaswamy temple - Darshini and Sudarshini also do not have ownership certificates.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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