Outfit demands release of Delhi Zoo jumbos

A Kerala-based animal rights campaigner has requested the Centre to release elephants kept at the National Zoological Park in Delhi into a spacious fenced forest area.
The Heritage Animal Task Force made the request in the wake of a reported incident in which two male elephants, kept at the national park, had attacked each other in front of its main keeper earlier this week.
The outfit recently sent a letter in this regard to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is also the chairman of the National Board for Wildlife, demanding intervention of PMO into the problems faced by jumbos kept in zoological parks.

V K Venkitachalam, the secretary of the Task Force, said lack of space and freedom of movement are some reasons which make the jumbos violent.
"The two male elephants and one female elephant kept at the National Zoological Park in Delhi must be released into a fenced open forest as jumbos kept in chains mainly for attracting tourists inside the zoo is an outdated idea," he told PTI.
Moreover, the National Zoological Park in Delhi does not have enough space for free movement of the three elephants, he said.

"As per the Central Zoo Authority norms, an elephant must have at least a free moving area of 1.75 hectares (3.33 acres) of land inside any zoo," he said.

The reported incident in which two male elephants attacked each other inside the Delhi zoo is the result of the stress suffered by them due to their inability to move their body inside narrow enclosure in which they were kept, he said.
This method of keeping elephants at a zoo in the national capital is not a matter of pride for the goverment itself, the activist added.