Mumbai |Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said Vantara will join the state government's petition in the Supreme Court to seek the return of elephant Madhuri to a monastery in Kolhapur.
Madhuri, the 36-year-old female tusker who was with the Shri Jinsen Bhattarak Pattacharya Mahaswami Jain ‘math' (monastery) at Nandani for over three decades, was relocated to Vantara's Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust last week following a court ruling.
The Bombay High Court on July 16 ordered the pachyderm to be rehabilitated at Vantara's facility in Gujarat's Jamnagar, after concerns raised by an NGO with the Maharashtra Forest Department and the Supreme Court appointed High-Powered Committee (HPC) on her deteriorated health and psychological suffering.
The Supreme Court on July 25 upheld the HC order.
Thousands of people participated in a 'silent march' in Kolhapur on Sunday, demanding that Madhuri (also called Mahadevi) be brought back from Vantara's facility.
Vantara has said it did not initiate or request the relocation of the elephant from the monastery in Kolhapur to its facility in Jamnagar but served only as the “court-appointed recipient facility".
"I had an extensive discussion with the Vantara team today in Mumbai. Good news is that they assured me that they are happy to join Maharashtra Government's petition before the Hon'ble Supreme Court for the smooth passage of the elephant ‘Madhuri' back to the Math," Fadnavis said in a post on X.
The CM said he held discussions with the Vantara team members, who told him that they are acting only on the orders of the Supreme Court and had no intention to grab the elephant's custody.
The team also showed its willingness to build a rehab centre for the elephant in Kolhapur near Nandani, at a place selected by the Maharashtra government's forest department, he said.
The team members also informed that they give highest respect to the religious sentiments of the community, the CM said
