Kolhapur
After a boycott of Jio and Reliance products and a sustained political campaign to force her return, on 9 September 2026, a High-Powered Committee (HPC) of the Supreme Court issued an order for elephant Madhuri’s return to the same bleak and lonely shed at a Kolhapur math that drove her to such mental distress as to kill its priest in 2017 and attack a bystander in 2022. Madhuri had been ordered to be rehabilitated at Vantara in Jamnagar (owned by Reliance) by the HPC and Bombay High Court about one year ago, a decision that was upheld by the Supreme Court, given her violence and deteriorated physical and mental state following efforts by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India). The latest order follows Vantara’s decision to actively turn its back on Madhuri during the HPC meeting held the same day, despite long distance transport back to the math being dangerous for Madhuri, her continued need for specialised veterinary care (which it has been shown in the Committee’s own recent report, does not exist at the math), and breaking of the deep elephant bonds she has formed during rehabilitation at Vantara after 33 years alone and in chains. The Supreme Court's own High-Powered Committee (HPC) inspected the shed where the math intends to keep her only weeks ago and found it insufficient and unfit for Madhuri’s long-term management. So, what happened suddenly?
Just three months before this order, Vantara's own veterinary team reported that Madhuri arrived with “severe chronic podiatric and orthopedic conditions,” that her lesions “still persist due to the longstanding nature of her condition,” and that she “will require continued specialised treatment, supportive care, and periodic monitoring to achieve optimal long-term recovery.” Vantara's own radiographs showed fracture lines that “persist and will require continued monitoring and long-term management.” Yet at the September 9 hearing, Vantara did an about face, suddenly ignoring Madhuri’s substantial physical and psychological needs, claiming her “continued retention at the [Vantara] facility is no longer in the interest of Madhuri or the Math.” Such retention and rehabilitation may not be in the business interests of Reliance, but it is certainly in this ailing elephant’s interests. In what appears now a relevant act, just a few days before the HPC hearing, a high-ranking Vantara representative approached PETA India asking for a list of their funding needs—a seemingly now-transparent dangle to silence PETA India.
“Vantara's own veterinary and animal welfare experts reported to the world that Madhuri suffers from chronic and painful foot issues, including those irreversible like arthritis, and that her deep bond with other elephants of her choosing is vital to her psychological wellbeing. Nothing has changed that justifies sending Madhuri away from Vantara’s hospital facilities, her new elephant family, or to put her on a truck for a painful 30+ hour journey—only the pressure on Reliance. This is a betrayal of traditional values of care for animals, and the betrayal of a long-suffering elephant who needs Vantara’s lifelong care—for business—that too, just before Ganesh Chaturthi.”—says Khushboo Gupta, Vice President of Policy, PETA India.
Within days of Madhuri's July 2025 transfer to Vantara's Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT) — ordered by the HPC and upheld by the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court after PETA India's complaint —#BoycottJio protests were led by former MP Raju Shetti. Despite assurances in the media in response by the Maharashtra government and Vantara last year for a state-of-the-art satellite Vantara facility to be established in the state, no such facility is being planned.
When the math applied this June to take Madhuri back to the same bleak shed where she had been kept in chains for years, the HPC sent a sub-committee to inspect the facility on 9 August 2026. Inspectors raised concerns about safe water, a lack of provision for specialised veterinary care, no proper path for her to walk on, and insufficient socialisation provisions among other problems. The math admitted to the sub-committee the facility exists “purely for religious purpose” and not for Madhuri’s rehabilitation. The sub-committee concluded the shed is inappropriate for the long-term management” of Madhuri. However, with active pressure from Vantara, Madhuri has now been ordered to return to suffer and be housed in essentially identical conditions that led to her violence and chronic and painful foot and leg problems. This is a shame on the integrity of the Committee which has thrown India’s reputation for honouring elephants to the winds.
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