Environment Ministry breaks its own laws, reveals RTI

IBNLive.com: New Delhi: Saturday, July 28, 2012.

The Environment Ministry has landed in a soup. An RTI query filed by CNN-IBN has revealed that the ministry approved the West Bengal government's controversial decision to capture a herd of wild elephants and force them into captivity, a practice that is banned under wildlife laws.

The RTI application showed that the Environment Ministry gave the go ahead for the capture of four wild elephants that had been destroying crops in south Bengal.

The law clearly states that no captured animal like an elephant shall be kept in captivity unless the Chief Wildlife Warden is satisfied that such an animal cannot be rehabilitated in the wild.