Elephant Gouri Attacks Again, Leaving Tourist With Broken Leg; PETA India Calls On Rajasthan Government to Stop Elephant Rides at Amer Fort Now and Send Gouri to a Sanctuary  

For Immediate Release:

28 February 2024

Contact:  

Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]   

Khushboo Gupta; [email protected]  

Jaipur – An elephant named Gouri (“ride no 86”), who severely injured a male shopkeeper in Amer in October 2022, attacked a female Russian tourist on 13 February in the main courtyard of Amer Fort. For 16 months, PETA India has been appealing to Rajasthan’s Archaeology and Museums Department to stop using Gouri for rides and send her to a sanctuary, where she could begin to recover from the mental trauma of a lifetime of enslavement. According to a 2018 Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) report, Gouri is kept in Rajasthan illegally, without an ownership certificate.  

Today, PETA India wrote to Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister for Tourism, Art and Culture, and Archaeology and Museums Diya Kumari calling for Gouri’s rehabilitation and for all elephant rides to be replaced immediately with eco-friendly motorised vehicles, as was recommended in a report of the committee constituted by the Project Elephant division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, per an order of the Supreme Court of India.   

In the latest attack, recorded on CCTV at Amer Fort, Gouri can be seen grabbing the Russian tourist in her trunk, swinging her vigorously, and then slamming her to the ground, breaking her leg. The mahout can also be seen falling off the elephant’s back. In October, Gouri attacked a shopkeeper, resulting in his being hospitalised with broken ribs and other broken bones.  

The video footage of the latest attack is available upon request.

“Elephants used for rides are controlled through pain and fear and chained when not in use, so the frustration of being treated so cruelly can and does cause some of these sensitive animals to run amok or lash out,” says PETA India Director of Advocacy Projects Khushboo Gupta. “Despite being a known danger, Gouri continued to be used to carry tourists at Amer Fort. PETA India calls on Rajasthan authorities to send her to a sanctuary and replace the use of elephants with decorated electric cars.”  

Another elephant named Malti (“no 44”) also continued to be exploited for rides at Amer Fort until recently, putting tourists at risk, even though the government body AWBI noted that she shows signs of anxiety and a Rajasthan government health certificate labelled her unhealthy and unsound. Her handlers beat her with sticks at Amer Fort in June 2017 and publicly subjected her to violence again in March 2019. PETA India has been appealing to authorities for years to have her sent to a sanctuary for appropriate care.  

When elephants attack humans, beatings and other punishments typically follow, which only makes the animals more frustrated and upset. Elephants are also common carriers of tuberculosis, which can infect humans. PETA India has previously highlighted that elephants who have tested positive for tuberculosis have still been used for rides.  

PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview, and requests that elephants at Amer Fort be replaced with beautiful, mechanised e-carriages. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, or Instagram.  

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