PETA India Staff Member Suffers Severe Rib Injury After Hooligans Pelt Hundreds of Stones During Elephant Mahadevi’s Rescue From Jain Math
Monday night, while supporting the facilitation of the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court orders for elephant Mahadevi’s transfer to Vantara’s Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT) in Jamnagar, PETA India staff and volunteers, RKTEWT staff and the police were pelted with hundreds of huge stones, resulting in one PETA India staff member suffering a severe rib injury. The windows of the car in which PETA India staff and volunteers were travelling were also totally smashed out.
Mahadevi had been kept imprisoned at Swastishri Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswami Sansthan Math (Karvir) at Nandani village for the last 33 years, where she was chained to a concrete floor, resulting in her deteriorated health. Due to her pain, loneliness and frustration, in 2017, she killed the chief Swamiji of the temple. The Jain temple then initially wanted to let her be rescued, but then started fighting to keep her, after realising they can earn money by renting her illegally for Muharram and other events. PETA India and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) have both separately offered a gift of a mechanical elephant to the temple to use for the same purposes.
Rohan Sarvpriya, PETA India’s Audio-Visual Specialist who had simply gone to document the transfer, suffered a severe injury during the incident. He says, “While working to support Vantara’s Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT) in implementing the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court orders for suffering elephant Mahadevi to be moved to their elephant rehabilitation facility for much-needed care, we were pelted with hundreds of large stones, and the windows of our vehicle were smashed out. Mahadevi has lived alone and in chains for 33 years. She is arthritic from being forced to stand on concrete and has a painful foot condition. Although we were terrified and suffered, what we faced was nothing compared to what Mahadevi has endured for decades. We are grateful that Mahadevi has now almost reached RKTEWT where she will finally receive expert veterinary care and be in the company of other elephants.”
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