No Approval to Move Elephant Madhuri by Supreme Court High Powered Committee—Public Promises of Her Return to Kolhapur are Baseless
A meeting of the High Powered Committee (HPC) appointed by the Supreme Court under the Chairmanship of Justice Deepak Verma (Retd.), which legal and policy representatives for PETA India attended, exposed that the noise being made in the media about elephant Madhuri’s return to Kolhapur’s Nandini Math (Swastishree Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswami Sansthan Math) from Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT), commonly referred to as Vantara, in Jamnagar are baseless and at best premature. Photographs and video footage submitted to the HPC by the Math demonstrate that the Math plans to jail her in the same shed where she spent 33 years alone, this time, with paintings of plants and a water stream on the wall. Last year, Madhuri was moved to Vantara for permanent rehabilitation following orders of the HPC, the Bombay High Court, and the Supreme Court. The move came after she killed the Math’s chief priest in pain and frustration, attacked a man during a procession and was determined by experts to be in an extremely deteriorated state of physical and mental health.
An application has been submitted to the HPC by Kolhapur’s Nandini Math, seeking Madhuri’s transfer back to her old, but recently repainted, shed. The application aims to rip Madhuri from her vast forested home at Vantara and from the elephant company that she relies on for her psychological well-being. This is despite Madhuri’s irreversible physical ailments being caused by a lifetime of chaining in the very same shed on the Math’s premises, including chronic foot disease and arthritis. Experts have also noted that Madhuri displays behavioural signs of trauma resulting from prolonged solitary confinement at the Math.
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While the HPC has not approved Madhuri’s transfer to Kolhapur and the Bombay High Court’s direction for her rehabilitation at Vantara remains in force, public announcements have nevertheless been made, promising her relocation back to Kolhapur by the Math and Vantara (presumably under duress), raising concerns regarding compliance with judicial orders and the prioritisation of Madhuri’s welfare. PETA India has filed objections to this proposal before the HPC, praying for Madhuri’s continued and permanent residence at Vantara, in accordance with previous judicial orders. As per the oral observations by the HPC Chairman Justice Deepak Verma (Retd.) during the meeting yesterday, an inspection of the so-called improvements made to the old shed is to be carried out by a committee comprising representatives from the Maharashtra Chief Wildlife Warden, the Central Zoo Authority, HPC’s veterinary expert, in the presence of a representative from PETA India.
After being relocated to Vantara, Madhuri began receiving specialised veterinary care and was able to live in the company of other elephants for the first time in decades, essential for female elephants who in nature live in multi-generational family herds. Vantara reports show Madhuri is now deeply bonded to another elephant in Jamnagar, seeks her company and that they participate in activities together, attend joint hydrotherapy sessions and communicate in rumbles and trumpets.
Despite assurances in the media in 2025 by the Maharashtra government and Vantara (which suffered an orchestrated attack on its parent company, Reliance, for caring for Madhuri) of a state-of-the-art satellite Vantara facility to be established in Maharashtra, no such facility is being planned either for Madhuri or any other elephant. To appease the public who want the best for Madhuri’s welfare, public promises were made then for a Kolhapur centre equipped with 24/7 medical facilities and a “specialised hydrotherapy pond for joint and muscular relief, a…larger water body for swimming and natural movement, [and] a laser therapy and treatment room for physical rehabilitation”. The new application submitted to the HPC by the Math proves this to be fiction, with plans to jail Madhuri in the same shed she was confined to, alone, for decades, but soon-to-be adjacent to a newly planned public road. Despite Madhuri’s elephant bond at Vantara and her painful foot and bone conditions that still require continued specialized veterinary treatment and monitoring, the Math proposes to transfer her some 30 hours by road from Jamnagar to the Math, away from the hospital and veterinary facilities.
PETA India notes that a distressed and isolated elephant cannot offer blessings. Madhuri’s past reflects the impact of long-term isolation and captivity, frustration and pain, which caused her to kill the chief priest of Nandini Math in 2017. Anyone who genuinely cares about her well-being would not support undoing her court-ordered rehabilitation, separating her from the companion she has bonded with, interrupting the medical care she needs, and removing her from her forested home at Vantara in Jamnagar, only to send her back to the same confined space where she lived alone for 33 years.
It asserts that the repainted shed at the Math is ideal for a mechanical elephant that can be used in processions instead.
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