The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notice to the Centre on a plea highlighting alarming rise in the number of unnatural elephant deaths, primarily due to electrocution.
A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli sought a response from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on the petition filed by environmental activist Prerna Singh Bindra and others.
The petition filed by Abhikalpa Pratap Singh sought a direction to the Union government for implementation of the Elephant Task Force’s 2010 report ‘Gajah’, which identified the death of elephants in incidents of deliberate and accidental electrocution as “one of the most common causes of elephant deaths in India”.
The plea claimed the "negligent and callous" attitude of the authorities in not implementing statutory mandates, and various guidelines and recommendations of their own expert bodies and committees, as well as orders passed by this court from time to time, has led to the continuing and increasing deaths of wild elephants due to electrocution.
The petitioners apprehended the future of Asian elephants, an ‘endangered’ species protected under Schedule I of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 and declared the National Heritage Animal in 2010, looked uncertain and bleak in India.
The data tabled before the Parliament, which showed that 333 out of the 510 elephant deaths related to conflict with humans between 2014-15 and 2018-19 were caused by electrocution – i.e. nearly two-thirds of all unnatural elephant deaths were caused by electrocution.
More recent data submitted in the Lok Sabha showed that these numbers have been steadily increasing – from 56 electrocution deaths in 2016-17 to 81 deaths in 2018-19. Recently the MoEF in response to a RTI application has stated that from 2009 to 2020, in total 741 elephants have died due to electrocution, the plea pointed out.
The petitioners contended the authorities have turned a blind eye to the ‘Gajah’ report of 2010 which categorically recommended constitution of National Elephant Conservation Authority on the lines of National Tiger Conservation Authority. This would have ensured establishment of mechanism to strengthen elephant conservation, and grant of appropriate funds related to efforts of elephant protection and conservation, they added.
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