In March 2026, images of a captive elephant, Chanchal, who was painted bright pink and used as a prop for a photoshoot in Jaipur, triggered widespread outrage internationally and across India. Previously, Chanchal had been used for rides. After Chanchal had reportedly died only a few months after she was painted, ‘Anupamaa’ star Rupali Ganguly wrote to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi ji, expressing a shared respect for wildlife with him, urging for an end to elephant rides in India, as Indonesia has done, and encouraging the use of robot elephants and other non-animal means instead of animal performances.
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Earlier, tourists visiting Amer Fort near Jaipur witnessed and documented a group of men attacking an elephant called Malti (“ride no 44”), who has since been rescued and is now being rehabilitated. The tourists watched in horror as eight men, including the mahout, beat the suffering elephant with sticks for up to 10 minutes after recapturing the animal, who had tried to escape the misery of carrying tourists uphill in extreme heat.
Another elephant named Gouri (“ride no 86”), who severely injured a male shopkeeper in Amer in October 2022, went on to attack a female Russian tourist on 13 February 2024 in the main courtyard of Amer Fort. PETA India has since been appealing for Gouri to be sent to a sanctuary, where she could begin to recover from the mental trauma of a lifetime of enslavement.
Elephants used for rides are controlled through pain and fear and chained when not in use, so the frustration of being treated this badly causes some of these sensitive animals to run amok and lash out. When elephants attack humans, beatings and other punishments typically follow, which only make the animals more frustrated and upset.
A committee constituted by the Project Elephant division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recommended that elephant rides at Amer Fort be “phase[d] out”. Tearing elephants away from their families, beating them into submission, and forcing them to give rides to tourists is cruel.
PETA India – in collaboration with leading industrial product design company Desmania Design – has submitted the design for a modern electric vehicle, which resembles a royal chariot, to the chief secretary of Rajasthan and appealed the chief minister of Rajasthan to help elephants by ending their use for tourist rides. Environment- and animal-friendly vehicles would be a suitable alternative to ferry tourists safely on the hilly terrain of Amer Fort.
You can help elephants by signing the appeal below.