For Immediate Release:
24 April 2024
Contact:
Sanskriti Bansore; SanskritiB@petaindia.org
Hiraj Laljani; HirajL@petaindia.org
Jaipur – Following a recommendation by the High-Powered Committee (HPC) of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, elephant Malti (“ride no 44”) has been transferred to the Vantara elephant sanctury in Jamnagar, where she will live free from abuse and in the company of other rescued elephants. The recommendation was based on an independent veterinary expert assessment commissioned by the HPC as a result of a complaint filed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India citing Malti’s deteriorating physical and mental health – as supported by an opinion signed by 120 veterinarians confirming her anxiety and investigation reports showing that she exhibited behaviour such as repetitively swaying and bobbing her head.
Malti was used for tourist rides at Amer Fort even though she has a history of running amok and fighting with another elephant, after which she was violently beaten by eight men at Amer Fort in 2017 and verbally abused and hit with sticks in 2019. PETA India had also called for her rescue in Amer magistrates’ court.
“At Amer Fort, elephants like Malti are controlled with weapons, chained when not being used for rides, and psychologically scarred from being forced to carry tourists,” says PETA India Director of Advocacy Projects Khushboo Gupta. “Frustrated elephants often lash out, and recently, Gouri, another elephant there, broke a tourist’s leg. PETA India thanks the Government of Rajasthan for sending Malti to a sanctuary and calls on it to replace elephants used for rides at Amer Fort with electric cars as recommended by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.”
Malti was used for rides even though the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) recorded that she was “anxious”, putting tourists at risk. In 2018, an AWBI report further noted that her ownership certificate was invalid and that her welfare was compromised, since her toenails were overgrown, cracked, deformed, and discoloured; the cuticles around her nails and in the interdigital space were overgrown, dry, and cracked; her foot pads were thin, uneven, and bruised; and her blood profile indicated eosinophilia (an increase in the number of eosinophils in the blood that occurs in response to some allergens, drugs, and parasites) and neutropenia (the presence of abnormally few neutrophils in the blood, leading to increased susceptibility to infection).
Virat Kohli and his wife, Anushka Sharma, had also condemned Malti’s plight and called for her rescue.
PETA India – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment” – 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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