new delhi slamming the government for its apathy in protecting elephants cabinet minister and wildlife activist maneka gandhi has demanded that rescue and rehabilitation centres be created for the pachyderms the minister who holds charge of the ministry of women and child development feels that not enough is being done to save elephants who are being illtreated every day there are only 22000 elephants left in the country of these at least 6000 face brutal treatment in illegal captivity about 600 elephants are killed every year by starvation beating drowning and abuse speaking on the issue gandhi said the elephant like the tiger must be treated with the highest degree of legal protection but because of government inattention they are languishingmany are tortured and found begging in temples the government must take responsibility the asian elephant is included in schedule i of the wildlife protection act 1972 which means that technically it has the highest degree of legal protection gandhi said but no one rescues these poor mistreated animals because government has not built any rescue and rehabilitation centres for this species the cost for keeping an elephant is also prohibitive each elephant costs about rs 50000 to 60000 per month in terms of medical care feed and rehabilitation this is about rs 7 lakhs per elephant per year the infrastructure required for housing each elephant also costs rs 1520 lakhs for protected contact enclosures ponds covered shelters enrichment structures and elephant keepers the cost for creating infrastructure and housing facilities for 50 elephants is about rs 10 crores and the recurring costs for 50 elephants is rs 35 crores per year in a bid to generate funds for rehabilitation of the pachyderm the minister and wildlife sos have teamed with bollywood stars like amitabh bachchan salman khan artistes like s h raza thota vaikuntam jpgen chowdhury subodh gupta who have painted on fiberglass statues of elephants proceeds from the exhibition will go to support the rescue centre