The Forest Department is making valiant efforts to rescue an elephant from a private owner in the past few days at lalganj in Pratapgarh but irate mobs have stalled the rescue. The district administration had to stop the rescue in view of the irate mob on Sunday and is trying to motivate the man to give the elephant.DFO Pratapgarh YP Shukla while talking to “The Pioneer” said that they have adopted proper legal methods to release the elephant and transfer it to the Elephant Care Centre but the owner resists it with the support of the other people.
Giving the details of the elephant DFO YP Shukla said that the man has been in the ownership of the elephant without any legal documents. “The man has no legal documents in possession for the ownership of the elephant. The elephant has since 1997 been violent three times and even killed a man and destroyed property. In 2013 when it got violent we seized it and made inquiries about its health and finding that its health was in bad shape made the efforts to procure a release order from the District Court to transfer it to the Elephant Care Centre Mathura. But each time we make this effort to procure the release the owner stalls it. This time we went fully prepared along with the police staff but were unable to get the elephant released” he said. The DFO said that the owner has also applied for a revision in the court as regards the elephant.
Talking to “The Pioneer” District Magistrate Pratapgarh Amrit Tripathi said that they were trying to see that the man could be motivated to give the elephant on his own. “There was a huge crowd which collected when the elephant was being rescued which included people from the nearby villages and they cited religious reasons for not allowing the release of the elephant” he said.
Kartick Satyanarayan from the Wildlife SOS Research reveals that Mohan is approximately 55 to 56 years old. “Wildlife SOS Research reveals that Mohan is approximately 55 to 56 years old, about three to five years older than Raju another elephant. Both Raju and Mohan spent several weeks in chains tied next to each other at the Sonepur Mela (a cattle fair at which elephants are displayed and often sold illegally), before they were transported together after being purchased by members of the same family. After purchase and transport, they were once again chained next to each together for several years while they were trained and exploited in lalganj, Pratapgarh and Allahabad. Both Raju and Mohan were subjected to abuse and beatings during their training process. They would be worked from morning to evening, sometimes together and sometimes separately, but they would be chained beside each other at night. Eventually Raju’s owner moved him to Allahabad and Mohan’s owner moved him to Pratapgarh, separating the two bull elephants” he said.