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How an Accidental Death Rescued Mithu the Elephant. Then Put Him in Chains.

Animal welfare activists and many officials want Mithu freed. But the authorities holding him aren’t budging.
​Mithu the elephant chained to a tree at a government forest office in Ramnagar, Varanasi. Photo: Uday Pratap Sharma
Mithu the elephant 

On a recent summer night, A. Satish Ganesh, the police commissioner in Varanasi district, sent a text message at 2 AM to an official living hundreds of kilometres away in the Indian capital.

“We need to do something about Mithu,” he wrote to Ramesh Pandey, the director of India’s National Zoological Park in New Delhi.

For 18 months people have passed by the elephant — whose name translates to “sweety” in Hindi — chained to a tree. His front and hind feet are bound in opposite directions and he’s often standing in his own feces. Mithu was placed here after accidentally trampling someone to death at a religious performance in Varanasi, an ancient holy city for Hindus, in late 2019.

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But critics say he should have never been forced into the life of a performance animal in the first place, where elephants are a national heritage animal in India and protected under strict wildlife laws.

“This is all illegal what they’ve done to the animal. I spoke to the District Magistrate and have asked him to have the animal released to the Dudhwa National Park,” Maneka Gandhi, a former federal minister and a serving parliamentarian, told VICE World News.

The park is a protected wildlife reserve of marshy grasslands about 550 kilometres from Varanasi. But authorities say Mithu cannot be moved until the state’s COVID-19 lockdown is relaxed. The elephant is in one of India’s worst hit states, where COVID-19 has claimed some 20,000 lives. 

Mithu’s tragic story came to light after local newspapers misreported the story, claiming the elephant was in chains after being “arrested for murder.”

The misinformation train continued when the state police recently tweeted that the elephant “arrested in October 2020” would soon be released.

Here’s what really happened. After the trampling death, wildlife officials found that Mithu’s identification microchip, which is embedded in all elephants in India, was tampered with. They also found that Mithu’s “ownership” documents had been forged. Police charged two men under the federal Wildlife Protection Act for illegal ownership.

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In a twisted irony, the two were released on bail, but Mithu has been languishing in captivity as case property or evidence. However, observers say that under India’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, even if Mithu is seen as evidence, he should be kept at an animal shelter.

“Keeping him tied up doesn’t make any sense. Case properties are indispensable to the judicial process, but they are usually handed back to the owner, with supervision by authorities, till the conclusion of the trial,” Vishal Gossain, a New Delhi-based criminal lawyer, said.

Forest Office Ramnagar

Entrance of the Forest Office in Ramnagar, Varanasi state. Photo: Uday Pratap Sharma

In January, India’s Supreme Court asked the federal government to either amend or repeal the law that allowed animals to be held in custody as case property, and instead return them to their owners till the conclusion of the trial. But that order specifically pertained to cattle, and was unclear about the fate of nationally protected animals like elephants.

Varanasi district police commissioner Ganesh said that once he learned of Mithu’s confinement, he sought help from Pandey in New Delhi, who then asked Mithu’s keepers to shift him to the Dudhwa National Park, which is a protected forest area. 

Khushboo Gupta, chief advocacy officer for PETA India, said Mithu “should be immediately shifted to a sanctuary or a rehabilitation centre where he can live a life without chains.”

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The wildlife officials in charge of him, however, maintain they take good care of the elephant, including regular veterinary check ups. “We have to keep him tied up, because he’s in the middle of a populated area. He could be a danger to others,” said Dinesh Singh, a divisional forest officer.

But even if Mithu is released, animal welfare activists worry about him because of how long he has spent in captivity.

“There’s a human imprint on captive animals, which doesn’t allow them to survive in the wild,” said Gauri Maulekhi from the organisation People for Animals. 

“There’s a possibility of a soft release and gradual rehabilitation into the wild but it requires very sophisticated, scientific interventions, which we haven’t really developed in India,” Maulekhi said. “However, they must ensure that Mithu lives as close to nature as possible.” 

A decision about Mithu’s fate is expected once COVID-19 restrictions change. Meanwhile, he remains chained to a tree.

Follow Mahim Pratap Singh on Twitter.