Vantara and Captive Elephant, Animal Cases: Amend Petitions Before Next Hearing, Says SC

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One petition seeks an investigation into all wildlife imports and conservation-related operations undertaken after 2020 by Vantara and the Radha Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust.
New Delhi: Hearing two petitions related to captive elephants and other animals at Vantara, the Jamnagar-based and Reliance-owned zoo and rescue-and-rehabilitation-centre, the Supreme Court on Thursday (August 14) asked petitioners to make changes – including listing Vantara as a respondent – and set the next date for hearing on August 25, according to news reports.
'Don't file vague petitions'
One petition pertained to an inquiry into Vantara's operations. Petitioner Dev Sharma sought an investigation into all wildlife imports and conservation-related operations undertaken since 2020 by Vantara and its linked entity, the Radha Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust, LiveLaw and the Indian Express reported.
Apart from this, the petition also called for the verification of permits under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) that enabled the import of animals to Vantara, the evaluation of claims regarding a gene bank, scrutiny of breeder legitimacy and source-country clearances, checks on compliance with the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, as well as India's obligations under CITES and the Convention on Biological Diversity, per LiveLaw.
'The law and rules have been violated. States' administration failed, some officers were compromised and others were threatened. Captive elephants were forcibly taken from temples and their owners,' the New Indian Express quoted the petition as stating.
'Not only national-level but also international-level animals and birds, some of them endangered species, were smuggled into Vantara in the name of a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility in Gujarat,' it was quoted as also saying.
The bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Prasanna Varale asked petitioner Sharma why he had not approached the Central Zoo Authority or any other relevant zoo authority before coming to the court.
'Don't file such vague petitions,' IE quoted the bench as saying. However, the bench permitted the petitioner to add more facts to the petition and re-submit it in five days.
Another petition that the Supreme Court heard on August 14 sought to constitute a monitoring committee to ensure that all captive elephants at Vantara be returned to their respective owners, and that all other animals and birds at the facility be released back into the wild.
However, hearing this petition filed by petitioner C.R. Jaya Sukin, the court observed that Vantara had not been included as a respondent in the case.
'You are making allegations against parties which are not represented here,' LiveLaw quoted the bench as saying. 'You have not made them respondents. You implead them and then come back to us, we will see.'
Per LiveLaw, the court will hear both matters on August 25.
Vantara in the spotlight
Vantara has been in the news recently after female elephant Madhuri (also called Mahadevi) was transferred from the zoo and rescue-and-rehabilitation centre from a Jain mutt in Kolhapur, Maharashtra.
The elephant had been in the care of the Jain mutt, the Swastishri Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswamy Sanstha, in Kolhapur's Nandani village for over 30 years. However, following observations by the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that the elephant was in ill health and required medical treatment, Madhuri was moved to Vantara recently.
Huge protests followed this move: people got out on the streets in Kolhapur and nearby areas, demanding that the elephant be brought back. Residents also decided to boycott Reliance products in some areas.
Before this, several news reports had also questioned the methods by which Vantara has amassed several species of wildlife at its zoo, including a mountain gorilla, from numerous countries across the world.
Vantara, however, has held that all transfers were legal and came with valid CITES and other certificates and paperwork.
More recently, the Union Ministry of Forests, Environment and Climate Change evaded a question on the number of animals kept at Vantara in the ongoing parliament session.
In response to several questions from Sudha Ramakrishnan, a Congress MP from Tamil Nadu, including whether the government had inspected the living conditions of these animals and conducted any study on their impact on the environment, the minister of state of the Union environment ministry went on to only list the five private zoos in the country in a written reply.
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