Conservation Trust Urges Karnataka Chief Minister to Reform Elephant Welfare Policy

On Tuesday, July 7, the United Conservation Movement Charitable and Welfare Trust submitted a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Karnataka and the Karnataka Forest Department in Bengaluru. The submission calls on the State Government to adopt a science-based framework centered on elephant welfare, ecological responsibility, and accountability.

According to the trust, Karnataka is known as the "land of elephants" and has the potential to set a national benchmark for humane elephant conservation. The memorandum was prompted by alleged incidents of abuse, neglect, preventable deaths, and mismanagement involving elephants across the state. The organization emphasized that elephants are highly intelligent and emotionally complex animals, making their humane treatment both a constitutional and ethical obligation.

To address these challenges, the organization proposed the creation of independent Captive Elephant Management Committees. These committees, consisting of wildlife veterinarians, Forest Department officials, and animal welfare experts, would conduct mandatory inspections of all captive elephants.

The trust also recommended implementing district-level welfare reviews twice a year, quarterly veterinary health checks, stricter background verification and counselling for mahouts, and replacing punitive training methods with positive reinforcement.

Further proposals in the memorandum include gradually replacing live elephants with mechanical ones in temples and public processions, where local customs permit. The trust also recommended restricting public interaction with captive elephants, assigning government wildlife veterinarians to temple elephants, establishing an emergency veterinary helpline, and rehabilitating suitable privately owned male elephants to government camps.

"There should be strict adherence to standard operating procedures during capture operations. Experienced wildlife veterinarians should be deployed, while monitoring by Elephant Task Force and Rapid Action Force personnel must be strengthened," said Joseph Hoover, former member of the State Board of Wildlife and founder of the trust.

Additionally, the memorandum urged the state to construct scientifically designed railway crossings and other mitigation infrastructure to reduce elephant deaths and human-elephant conflict.