MUMBAI: Following an 18-month campaign by PETA, the city of Mumbai has announced that elephants will no longer be allowed in the city. The campaign featured advertisements against elephants in captivity starring actors Rahul Khanna and Celina Jaitley.

Letters written by MP Shatrughan Sinha and MP Maneka Gandhi; and a petition was signed by Dilip Kumar, Saira Banu, John Abraham, MP Priya Dutt, Sanjay Dutt, Sanjay Leela Bansali, Isha Koppikar, Mahesh Bhatt, Yana Gupta and Gulshan Grover.

The ban comes on the heels of a report – which PETA presented to the Mumbai commissioner of police and the chief conservator of forests, Thane Circle pointing out many of the problems associated with allowing elephants on roads and outside temples in the city, including cruelty to animals, the threat to human life and property, and the possible transmission to humans of tuberculosis and anthrax.

In 2006, an elephant named Laxmi was hit by a water tanker in Mumbai. Because proper medical attention could not be provided, Laxmi suffered with her injuries for more than a day before dying. Another elephant in Mumbai was frightened by a fire cracker and fell onto a car. The mahout fled the scene, and the elephant went on a rampage, requiring an entire platoon of SRPF and 60 police personnel to subdue her.