Gulshan Grover Wants Sunder Freed

Award-winning actor Gulshan Grover has sent an urgent letter to Maharashtra Forest Minister Dr Patangrao Kadam urging him to help ensure that 14-year-old elephant Sunder is sent to a sanctuary.

The letter was sent in advance of the next High Court of Bombay hearing, scheduled for 3 March, for a case in which PETA is seeking Sunder’s release. MLA Vinay Kore donated Sunder to the Jyotiba temple in 2007, and the elephant has been kept chained and inside dark sheds for most of that time. PETA has obtained video footage showing that his mahout violently beat him with a pole near a poultry shed where he has been chained at the behest of Kore. In August 2012, Kadam’s office issued an order for Sunder’s release, but it has yet to be implemented. In December 2013, the High Court of Bombay also ordered Sunder’s transfer to a sanctuary, but he has yet to be released.

“Unfortunately, despite orders from your good office, as well as from the High Court of Bombay, for Sunder’s release, he is still being held fast in iron shackles, living in mortal fear of the very same mahout who was seen on video beating him without mercy”, Grover writes. “I may have played a bad man in films, but we are dealing with a real-life ‘bad man’ situation here that cries out for justice.”

Join the campaign to help #FreeSunder.