Gouri, an elephant, (“Ride no 86”), who severely injured a shopkeeper in Amer last year in October 2022, attacked a female Russian tourist on 13 February at the main courtyard of Amer Fort.
In the CCTV footage of the Amer Fort, Gouri can be seen grabbing the Russian tourist in her trunk and swinging her vigorously before slamming her on the ground and breaking her leg. In the ensuing melee, the mahout falls off the elephant’s back.
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Earlier in October 2022, the same elephant attacked a shopkeeper resulting in his hospitalisation with broken ribs and bones.
Khushboo Gupta, PETA director of Advocacy Project, told The Statesman while her office confirmed the incident on February 23, there has been no media coverage yet.
Gupta said PETA India has been repeatedly requesting the Department of Archaeology and Museum in the past 16 months not to use Gouri for tourist rides and send the elephant to a sanctuary so that she could recover from the mental trauma she is suffering due to her enslavement beatings.
According to a 2018 Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) report, Gouri is kept in Rajasthan illegally, without an ownership certificate.
Gupta said, “Today, PETA India wrote to Rajasthan Deputy Chief Minister cum Minister for Tourism, Art and Culture, Archaeology and Museums Diya Kumari urging for Gouri’s rehabilitation and demanding that all elephant rides be replaced immediately with eco-friendly motorised vehicles, as was recommended in a report from the committee constituted by the Project Elephant Division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, per an order of the Supreme Court of India”.
“Elephants used for rides are controlled through pain and fear and chained when not in use. The frustration of being meted out with such a shoddy treatment can and does force some of these sensitive animals to run amok or lash out,” she said.
“Despite being a known danger, Gouri continued to be used for carrying tourists at Amer Fort. The PETA India urges Rajasthan authorities to send her to a sanctuary replacing her with a decorated electric car,” she alleged.
Like Gauri, another elephant, Malti (“no 44”), has been exploited for rides at Amer Fort till recently putting the lives of tourists at risk even though the AWBI, a government body, noted that she showed signs of anxiety while a state government health certificate labelled her unhealthy and unsound. Her handlers beat her up with sticks at the Amer Fort in June 2017 and publicly subjected her to violence again in March 2019.
When the elephants attack humans, beatings and other punishments typically follow making the animals all the more frustrated and aggressive. Elephants are common carriers of tuberculosis and can infect humans. PETA India has previously highlighted that elephants that have tested reactive for tuberculosis have still been used for rides.
