Rules that still manacle the captive elephant
The HinduIn India, where elephants are revered as sacred symbols of wisdom and strength, privately-held captive elephants live a stark contradiction. New rules and loopholes In its intent to regulate potential misuse of captive elephants in private custody and curb illegal captures from the wild, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change published the Captive Elephant Rules in March 2024. Thus, the legislation could be misused by private elephant owners to essentially “rent out” their animals, which risks incentivising the capture of wild elephants and directly undermines elephant conservation. Most captive elephants were microchipped as part of a 2002 initiative that Project Elephant launched to track all captive elephants in India that have valid certificates of ownership. The memorandum reiterated the need for the strict adherence to Captive Elephant Rules, 2024 and emphasised the mandatory digitisation of the genetic profiles of captive elephants.