Captive elephant transfer rules notified

Newly Notified Rules Regarding the Transfer of Captive Elephants.

The new regulations would allow the transfer if the donor could no longer care for the elephant in captivity.

New regulations pertaining to the transfer of captive elephants have been announced by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Through this, any elephant with a certificate of ownership can be transferred from one state to another.

According to reports, the chief wildlife warden (CWW) of the state in which the elephant is being transferred must be notified in order to begin the transfer of an elephant. The application would then be forwarded by him/her to the CWW of the state where the animal is being relocated.

The application and relevant paperwork must be sent to a representative not lower than the rank of deputy conservator of forests (DCF) by the state's CWW, which would accept the elephant, within seven days. Within 15 days, the DCF would complete the investigation and deliver the findings to the CWW.

The report would be shared between the recipient state's CWW and his counterpart in the donor state. The donor state CWW would make the final determination regarding whether to accept or reject the transfer.