Kolhapur, Aug 1 (PTI) Maharashtra minister Prakash Abitkar on Friday said the efforts are on to bring back 36-year-old female elephant Mahadevi (also called Madhuri), from Vantara’s Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust in Gujarat’s Jamnagar district.
“At a meeting in Kolhapur today, Vantara officials assured that they will cooperate in efforts to bring Mahadevi back to Nandani in Kolhapur district,” the minister told reporters after the meeting.
Mahadevi, who was with the Shri Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswami Jain ‘math’ (monastery) at Nandani for over three decades, was relocated to Vantara earlier this week following a court ruling.
The Bombay High Court on July 16, ordered Mahadevi to be rehabilitated at Vantara’s facility in Jamnagar, after concerns raised by an NGO with the Maharashtra Forest Department and the Supreme Court appointed High-Powered Committee (HPC) on her “deteriorated health and psychological suffering”.
The Supreme Court on July 25 upheld the HC order.
BJP MP Dhananjay Mahadik and Shiv Sena MP Dhairyasheel Mane, both from Kolhapur district, are working to get the Centre to file an affidavit in the Supreme Court for bringing Mahadevi back, Abitkar said.
Mahadik on Thursday met Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister Bhupender Yadav and submitted a memorandum for bringing back Mahadevi to the Jain monastery in Nandani.
Mahadevi, who was reportedly brought from Karnataka to the Kolhapur math in 1992 when she was around three years old, allegedly killed the chief priest in 2017 by repeatedly slamming him against a wall.
Mahadevi suffers from foot rot, overgrown toenails, arthritis, and stereotypic behaviour such as constant head bobbing which is a sign of psychological trauma due to long-term solitary captivity.
The Vantara facility offers hydrotherapy, expert veterinary care, and socialisation with other elephants, which the HPC deemed essential for the elephant’s recovery.
The last few days have seen several people in Kolhapur porting out their Jio SIM cards to protest the elephant being taken to Vantara, a local leader said.
Congress MLC Satej Patil said that people of Kolhapur want the elephant back.
“More than 1.25 lakh persons have signed forms demanding Mahadevi’s return to the Jain math at Nandani. These forms will be sent to the President's office via speed post from Kolhapur,” he said.