India

Vantara's Elephant In The Room

Kolhapur villagers allege PETA acted for beloved elephant to be sent to Vantara, raising suspicion.

Credit : Indie Journal

 

Why does Ambani want our elephant, asked the villagers of Nandani, a quiet farming village in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district, as a team of Reliance owned Vantara took the captive elephant that lived in the village for over 30 years to their rehabilitation facility in Jamnagar. In fact, while Vantara might have taken the elephant following high-placed recommendations and a legal battle, the acquiring of elephants by the private trust has raised eyebrows several times over the past couple of years. The current case has those fighting for the elephant ask, whether NGOs like PETA and official elephant authorities in the country are purposefully facilitating elephant transfers only to this Ambani owned private zoo.

Madhuri aka Mahadevi, the 37-year-old female elephant that lived in a Jain Math (Mutt) in Nandani in Kolhapur's Shirol taluka, was taken to the Vantara Rehabilitation Centre in Gujarat owned by the Ambanis on July 28. The proceedings were a result of a complaint initiated by PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) alleging that the animal was ailing and being treated poorly in captivity. The villagers have, however, alleged that PETA has been working with Vantara from the beginning to take the elephant their centre in Jamnagar, where elephants from all over the country are being collected. The villagers are protesting this by boycotting Ambani-owned businesses, mainly porting out of the Jio network connection in thousands.

“We realised, albeit late, that PETA and Vantara were connected from the very beginning and they planned to take the elephant there, no matter what. We had the ownership certificate of the animal, which falls under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972,” Sagar Shambhushete, one of the trustees of Shri Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswami Jain Math in Nandani Village in Kolhapur’s Shirol taluka.

“We have seen two elephants in our lifetime. The 1,300 years old math has a history of rearing elephants for over 400 years. It’s not just the Jains here that revered this elephant. All communities adored and worshiped her. She would be a part of all religious ceremonies, may it be Jain, Hindu or Muslim. She was not an animal. She was a part of our families,” Shambhushete said.

 

The day Madhuri was brought to Nandani

 

Madhuri was around 3.5-4 years old when she was brought to Math in 1992. Since then, villagers say that she has been a part of the village’s everyday life.

 

PETA’s attempts to send Madhuri to Vantara

“In 2020-21, the PETA approached us and tried to convince us that there is a new centre for elephants coming up in Gujarat and that we should send Madhuri there. The meetings continued for over a year. But we kept on refusing. Right from the first meeting, they said we should give the elephant to Vantara. There are rehabilitation centres in Maharashtra, why not recommend sending her there?” Shambhushete asked.

Another employee at the Math, Shirish Herawade said, “They even tried to bribe us when we refused, they said they could help if the Math needed a new building. They said they would give us a mechanical elephant for our religious functions. But it's not just about religion, our sentiments are attached to Madhuri. When they realised that we were not going to send our elephant, they registered a complaint with the High Powered Committee (HPC) for the welfare and management of elephants, captive and wild.”

The High Powered Committee (HPC) was established by the Tripura High Court and was empowered by the Supreme Court later with a pan-India jurisdiction to address issues related to elephant transfer, rehabilitation and overall well-being.

Former MP and President of Swabhimani Paksha Raju Shetti, whose constituency the village was a part of, recently posted his photographs with PETA official Khushbu Gupta and alleged that she met him at his Jaisingpur office back in 2020 and asked him to convince the Math trustees to send Madhuri to Vantara.

 

 

“They even said that they are willing to arrange for a donation of around Rs 2 crores from the Ambani Group if the elephant is transferred. I rejected their offer even without talking to Bhattarak Maharaj or the trustees of the Math,” Shetti claimed, adding that PETA then created fake documents to take Madhuri away.

“PETA claimed that the elephant was sick and wounded, that she was suffering. Any living being, whether wild or not, will fall sick, will get wounded at some point. We were taking care of our elephant but PETA just took pictures and filed a complaint with the HPC. The HPC, without talking to us, directly issued a letter to the Maharashtra forest department asking it to handover the elephant to the Radhe Krishna Elephant Welfare Trust run by Vantara,” Shambhushete said.

In their response to the queries made by Indie Journal, Khushboo Gupta, Director of Advocacy, PETA India insisted that it was the court that suggested Madhuri be sent to Vantara.

“Madhuri’s (Mahadevi’s) case was considered by the Bombay HC twice, High Powered Committee of the SC twice, and the SC. We believe the court chose Vantara because she has stage 4 arthritis, painful foot rot and other problems from over three decades in chains on concrete and because she is severely psychologically deteriorated from loneliness, having killed the Chief Swamiji. There’s only two modern equipped elephant hospitals in the country, and Vantara’s has more facilities for her pain, which is what the court would have considered. In animal welfare matters, courts often direct care to NGOs and other places depending on what is required,” Gupta said.

She further said, "Female elephants are social animals who require the company of other elephants for their wellbeing and at Vantara she can have an elephant family, swim in ponds and roam. Madhuri was already forest dept property having been technically seized from the temple for wildlife protection violations years ago. But she did not get the care she needed or company until her rescue."

Vantara has also released its official statement on its social media stating that "Vantara acted solely in compliance with the binding orders of the Honourable Bombay High Court which were subsequently upheld by the Honourable Supreme Court of India. We were not the initaters of the move, but the facility directed to carry out the court's decision and provide her [Madhuri] with care."

The Math resisted this and petitioned at the Bombay High Court to bring a stay to this order. The court also stayed the order and asked the HPC to listen to the villagers before making their decision. Following this, a team of the HPC visited Nandani to observe the elephant and its management.

“They spoke to us very sweetly. They said the elephant was overall in a good shape and gave us a few instructions to follow, which we did. Those were not very big changes. But we said we would follow any and all instructions that they would give. Two months after their visit, officials of the Kolhapur forest department also visited us and said that we followed almost all the recommendations, except for one. We also received a letter for the same from the Kolhapur Forest Department,” Shambhushete added.

“The team had mentioned changes like making sure that Madhuri had soil to stand on instead of concrete floor in her residence. This instruction was followed immediately,” Shrenik Narde, one of the members of Hatti Bachao Kruti Samiti (Save elephant Action Committee), said.

 

The shed where Madhuri lived

 

The one instruction that the Math reportedly fell short of following, the one that PETA ultimately used, was that of the lack of socialisation for Madhuri. Elephants are known to be social animals, who form close knit herds and experience stress when lonely.

“However, although difficult, we tried to bring the elephants in the area together at the time of festivals. We were willing to do it more often as well. But while the Kolhapur forest department gave a good review, its high authority, Nagpur forest department, whose officials never visited us, told the HPC that although the Math has fulfilled a few requirements, they are free to make whatever decision they want,” Shambhushete added.

We wrote to them, but it was not considered in the judgement and they gave a verdict in favour of PETA and Vantara. We challenged this at the Bombay High Court, but even the court stood with PETA. Then we went to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court gave its judgement within minutes and favoured PETA again,” Herawade said.

“Why did they have to snatch the elephant from us and send her so far away to Jamnagar?” Nandani villagers ask.

 

Vantara’s nexus with NGOs and Govt authorities?

Interestingly, the HPC has been flagged before for authorising transfer of elephants to Vantara, without considering any other local options. In May 2024, wildlife activist Rohit Choudhary expressed concerns about the lack of transparency of the HPC in allowing movements of elephants from Northeast India to Vantara. On May 5, 2024, an injured and abused cow elephant, named Pratima, and her calf were detained in Assam by the state forest department while on their way to Jamnagar. Choudhary had questioned why the “HPC did not consider alternate, local options for treatment that would have avoided an arduous 3,000-kilometre journey during the peak of the summer for a severely unfit elephant who is still nursing her calf”.

 

 

Vantara has been flagged a few times since its opening about the transfer of animals, especially captive animals, to the facility.

“Why Vantara? It is said that someone told Mukesh Ambani that it would be better for his son’s health if he has 12 or more elephants and that’s how they began this whole exercise of bringing in captive elephants from all over the country. Many NGOs like PETA or even some local NGOs began doing the liasoning work for them. They find elephants in Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur owned by royal families or religious organisations, conduct medical tests, and if they find the animal sick, they suggest that it be sent to Vantara,” a renowned wildlife conservationist from Maharashtra, also associated with the Maharashtra Forest Department, said on condition of anonymity.

“Why send these elephants to Vantara? Doesn't the Maharashtra government have funds to rehabilitate its elephants here? If not, they can always send the elephants to Karnataka, which has such facilities,” the conservationist added.

Experts have long been questioning the suitability of Jamnagar as a rehabilitation centre for elephants, which are not found that west of the country. Gujarat is hotter than many parts of the country and Asian Elephants usually live in greener areas. However, as per media reports, a report by the HPC stated, “The [elephant] Camp is located within the green belt of the precincts of the campus of Reliance Industries Limited’s Jamnagar Refinery.” Vantara already has over 200 elephants, it plans to acquire around 1,000, as per media reports.

 

 

In fact, in one of the very first cases after being constituted, when the HPC recommended transfer of 23 elephants from Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura to Vantara, the committee praised the rescue centre as “world class” and recommended all states consider transferring their elephants in need to this centre. It is in fact the truth, as per conservationists, that the facilities at Vantara are unmatched when it comes to elephant rehabilitation. However, they have also been asking the same question: Why does the HPC recommend transfer of injured or captive elephants to Vantara from far away regions, without even considering local options.

The HPC is headed by retd. Justice Deepak Verma, former Supreme Court judge. Justice Verma was one of the 21 former judges who had written a letter to former Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachood alleging “escalating attemp by certain factions to undermine the judiciary through "calculated pressure, misinformation and public disparagement".

The villagers in Nandani said that the Vantara team had arrived in Sangli distrcit days before the Supreme Court verdict.

“We got the High Court order on July 17. On the very next day, Vantara sought NOC from Jamnagar, transfer permit from Nagpur forest department, and submitted those to the Kolhapur forest department, while the case was still to be heard by the Supreme Court. It was as if they were totally sure that they were going to win,” Shambhushete said.

 

Madhuri's photograph posted by Vantara upon reaching the Jamnagar facility

 

“Even before the Supreme Court order, the police had imposed prohibitory orders in Kolhapur district to deter people from gathering,” Narde said.

Last year, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) issued the Captive Elephant (Transfer or Transport) Rules, 2024, to ease transfer of elephants between states. Activists have criticised these rules, over their ambiguity that may enable illegal capture, exploitation and commercial trading of captive elephants. Conservationists who spoke to Indie Journal said that it is very much possible to ensure smooth transport of captive animals to Vantara.

 

Madhuri’s life in Nandani

Madhuri, now 36 years old, lived in Nandani for the past 32 years. “The Math cultivated a patch of land just to feed Madhuri. Since we did not have enough trees that she could access, we would arrange for fodder. Her Mahouts would cook special meals for her. Then she would walk around the village, the nearby villages, where she would get plenty of exercise. We would take her to the river for bathing regularly,” Shambhushete said.

The grocer who runs the Kurde grocery shop in Nandani’s weekly market, showing his record of groceries bought by the Math for Madhuri, said, “The Math would buy sufficient supplies for Madhuri every week, see I have all its records. Madhuri was part of all of our lives, we fed her, we greeted her.”

 

Records maintained by the grocer

 

One of the regular rituals of Madhuri was that she would walk in the packed weekly market in Nandani every wednesday. The Wednesday market in Nandani was founded by Shahu Maharaj, Narde says. Every week, while the vegetable and fruit market would be crowded with people on Wednesday evening, Madhuri would walk down the market street, greeting people and eating the vegetables and fruits offered by them.

“What they did is wrong. They should not have taken Madhuri. She was happy here, we were all happy to have her here. We would feed her vegetables almost every time she walked into the market,” says Sharif Shaikh, who sells vegetables in Nandani weekly market.

Vegetable seller Bharati Koli said with tears in her eyes, “This is her time to come, this is the time she would come to the market every Wednesday. I cannot believe she is not going to come today, that we are never going to see her.”

The vegetable and fruit sellers in the village said that she would come walking to the market at around 6-6.30 in the evening and take offerings from everyone.

 

Nandani's weekly market

 

“The market is nowhere close to packed today. I think everyone is afraid of facing the fact that she will not be in the market today. She would take fruits from us and put her trunk on her head. She did not do that the day she was leaving. I think she knew that she was going away,” fruit seller Rajashree Bagade said.

While the villagers insist that Madhuri did not hurt anyone, even when she was in the middle of crowds, PETA has cited an incident wherein the elephant attacked the chief priest of the Math back in 2017. PETA claims that she attacked the priest due to her cruel and bleak living conditions. However, villagers claimed that the organisation has cited the incidents without taking the circumstances behind them into consideration.

“The attack took place during a time when the Mahout who took care of Madhuri had passed away and she was disturbed. The Maharaj went to feed her and was attacked by her. She was in a fragile state after losing her caretaker and that was most likely the reason behind her behaviour,” Narde said.

This was around the same time when then MP Raju Shetti had written a letter to the Kolhapur forest department to relocate Madhuri to an elephant rehabilitation centre. While the letter is circulating on social media since he opposed the relocation of Madhuri to Vantara, Shetti explained that he had written the letter due to the unavailability of a caretaker to look after Madhuri. The situation changed once Math employed another Mahout.

“Madhuri has never hurt anyone without provocation. She would not just roam around in Nandani, but in all the nearby villages. Children would run between her legs when they saw her and she never did anything to hurt them. Even on her last day in Nandani, thousands of people from the nearby villages came to say goodbye to her. People gathered around her, they were crying, but Madhuri was calm,” Narde said.

 

Health certificate issued by the doctor in Shimoga in May.

 

Madhuri, along with the other elephants in the area, would get checked regularly by a specialised veterinary doctor from Shimoga, who would visit her every six months. The Math has maintained records of these visits going back to 2010. Moreover, a village veterinary doctor, Dr Mahaveer Mangave, also checked her in between these visits.

“Since I live in the village, I would look after Madhuri in consultation with the specialist doctor who would visit every six months. We followed this procedure. Madhuri did not have arthritis as PETA claims, she had a few wounds, which anyone can have. It did not mean that there was negligence,” Mangave said.

“They snatched Madhuri away from us, they should not have done that. Our elephant was part of our public life here. They took her away, the capitalists defeated us,” Mangave said.

 

Villagers vow to boycott Reliance in protest

People’s rage against this decision to send Madhuri to Vantara has been reflected not just in Nandani, but all over Kolhapur district. While some cases of vandalism took place after the elephant was transported, in general, people seem to have adopted boycott as the form of protest, as thousands have been porting out of the Reliance-owned Jio sim cards since the day she was taken away.

“On the very day, at around 12 midnight, I got calls from the villagers in Nandani asking me to make arrangements to port their sim cards out of Jio. Within the first two days, we ported around 1,000 cards from Nandani to Airtel,” Nilesh Chaugule, Airtel distributor for Shirol taluka said.

Since that day, Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) set up their camps at Nandani as well as several surrounding villages and have been porting out thousands of Jio sim cards.

 

Airtel and Vi stalls in Nandani

 

“The villagers have been telling me that the reason that they are porting out of their Jio connections is because the Ambanis took away their elephants. Even those who had already paid for the service for over the next year are also porting their sim cards. I am getting calls from all the surrounding villages. We have not seen such a phenomenon ever,” Chaugule said.

He said over 2,500 Jio sim cards were ported out in the first three days across Shirol taluka. 

The villagers are also talking about boycotting other Ambani-owned businesses.

“Along with Jio, we are also trying to boycott as many Reliance products as possible. There is a Reliance petrol pump in the village. We are going to boycott that too. This is a people’s movement. All villagers in the surrounding area are participating in this boycott on their own accord. We can damage Reliance with this boycott. Vantara has used money and power to take our elephant away. We will keep fighting until we get her back,” village activist Anil Kshirsagar said.

As people’s voices grew, Mahayuti leaders in Kolhapur, Prakash Abitkar and Dhairyasheel Mane, said that they called Vantara officials to have a dialogue with the villagers. While the Vantara officials met the Maharaj of the Math in Kolhapur on Saturday, no concrete change took place in the situation.

“Maharaj told the Vantara officials to return the elephant to the village and provide the care they intended to give her at the village itself. However, the officials told Maharaj that the transfer was ordered by the court, so nothing could be done unless the court. They requested Maharaj to ask the villagers not to boycott Jio, but Maharaj told them he had not issued any such order, it was a people's protest,” Shambhushete said.

 

The story was updated on Monday, August 4, 2025 at 04:55 pm with the response from PETA India over the questions sent to them.

 

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