Zoo elephants to be unchained after MP High Court order

Elephants Moti and Champa will be unchained nearly after seven years following the directions of the Madhya Pradesh High Court today to the Municipal Corporation authorities to construct an open enclosure for them.
Both Moti and Champa were chained for about seven years ago, because of their "volatile" nature.
However, after a petition filed by an organisation working for animals rights, the Madhya Pradesh High Court directed the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC)-run Kamala Nehru Zoo authorities to unchain them and construct an open enclosure for them.
"Construction of an open enclosure at an estimated cost of Rs 50 lakh began about a week ago," zoo in-charge Uttam Yadav told PTI.

The budget has been sanctioned by the IMC and an open enclosure is being constructed on an 1.5 acre area, with a water pond as well as fountains, to enable elephants to freely roam in it, so that visitors may watch them, he said.
The elephants have been in the zoo since the last 25 years and whenever the male elephant Moti was unchained, it attacked people and had also seriously injured a mahout.
While hearing the petition, experts opined that because of their volatile nature, Moti and Champa could neither be set free in the zoo, nor released in the forest, since they are not used to forest life.