Disturbing New Video of Elephant Madhuri Attacking a Man in Public Surfaces as Math Campaigns to Rip Her from New Sanctuary Home to Parade Her in Processions

For Immediate Release:

23 September 2025

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Delhi – People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) has submitted new video evidence to members of the Supreme Court appointed High-Powered Committee (HPC) and the Chief Wildlife Warden of Maharashtra apparently showing elephant Madhuri (also known as Mahadevi) suddenly attacking a man while being used in a religious procession in a village on 13 May 2022. The incident occurred while individuals were riding on her back, and the footage shows her being jabbed and beaten for it. A forest department panchnama also shows that Madhuri had been used for a procession from 5 to 15 May 2022 without the mandatory transport permissions under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The evidence has been submitted to the HPC in response to an application by the Swastishri Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswami Sansthan Math (Karvir) seeking permission to recall Madhuri from Vantara’s Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT) rehabilitation facility in Jamnagar to parade her for a month in Nandani village processions despite her severe arthritis and other painful health ailments.

The video of Madhuri attacking a man during a public procession, a copy of the panchnama and the video showing Madhuri’s plight in custody of the Math are available upon request.

The Math’s unreasonable demand comes less than a mere two months after the Hon’ble Supreme Court upheld an order of the Hon’ble Bombay High Court to provide relief to the 36-year old female elephant Madhuri who tragically killed the chief priest of the Math in 2017 by repeatedly slamming him against the wall, and who had been kept alone and in chains at the temple since 1992. (The Bombay High Court and HPC had ruled twice that she must be rehabilitated.) Now, finally, after a difficult court-appointed rescue in which RKTEWT and PETA India staff were severely injured by goons hurling rocks at them and at the ambulance carrying Madhuri to RKTEWT, and from resulting broken glass—Madhuri is emotionally bonded with another rescued elephant at RKTEWT, after 33 years alone at the Math.

Madhuri was not the only captive elephant in the Kolhapur region even if the Math is hellbent on parading an elephant, but there is no need for a live elephant to be paraded at all. PETA India and Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organizations (FIAPO) have each offered a mechanical elephant to the Jain Math, for use in the temple rituals and encourage all temples to choose humane mechanical elephants in place of living elephants for animal welfare and human wellbeing. Recently, the Thousand Pillars Jain Temple in Karnataka became the first Jain temple in the world to welcome this technology with PETA India’s help.

“Elephants lash out from years of loneliness and physical and psychological torment in captivity. Madhuri has repeatedly expressed her frustration by attacking humans, even killing the Chief Priest. Recalling her from a rehabilitative facility only to shackle and parade again, is a betrayal of her needs and will mean a risk to life of every person who encounters her,” says PETA India Director of Advocacy Projects Khushboo Gupta. “Life-like mechanical elephants can be used instead.”

Madhuri’s medical history as consistently recorded by experts, including the Sub-Committee appointed by the HPC notes that she suffers from numerous chronic ailments and afflictions from her decades on concrete, including those now irreversible in nature. The conditions include: stage 4 arthritis; foot rot, a painful and degenerative condition which requires sustained and specialised care; overgrown nails and cracked footpads. Detailed observation by expert veterinarians at RKTEWT as shared by them in the public domain confirms the above findings and describes wounds and abscesses on toe nails, lesions on her forefeet showing chronic inflammation, multiple fractures in the smaller bones of her feet and severe stereotypic behaviour from her life at the Math. Madhuri shows signs of psychological distress through stereotypic behaviour such as swaying and head bobbing which comes as no surprise after decades in solitary confinement and deprivation of meaningful social interaction with her own species.

Case background:

On 16 July 2025, Madhuri was ordered to be rehabilitated at RKTEWT by the Hon’ble Bombay High Court, following concerns raised by PETA India to the Maharashtra Forest Department and the Supreme Court-appointed HPC on her deteriorated health and psychological suffering. On 30 July 2025, Madhuri reached her new home, Vantara’s RKTEWT, in Jamnagar. There, Madhuri is living free from chains and weapons, and in the company of other elephants. She is also able to receive specialised veterinary care by world-class veterinarians, including hydrotherapy, to address her arthritic condition.

Madhuri had lived on the concrete floor of a shed at the Jain Bhattarak Math since she was just three years old. Independent veterinarians have documented the elephant’s deteriorated health condition, including painful foot rot, overgrown nails and arthritis. Recognizing the elephant’s psychological distress in these conditions, the Bhattarak Math initially intended to rehabilitate her. Local politician Raju Shetti also supported her rehabilitation, however, their position shifted, as they began to rent her out for Muharram and other events and as Mr Shetti began to use her plight for his political gain. Blackmail efforts have since been underway as led by Mr Shetti who had encouraged a boycott of Jio services (RKTEWT is Reliance-owned).

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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