Jain Society of Greater Detroit
Elephant Statue Status
August 27, 2021
Status Update - Elephant Statues
Jai Jinendra and Pranam Society Members,
It is with deep disappointment we inform you that JSGD’s elephants have been recently sold by the Customs officials in India to a third-party buyer through an open auction at the Mundra port. It has been a long and very complex process to reclaim the elephant statues from the Indian Customs authorities, and we are faced with an unfortunate conclusion despite the tremendous amount of effort that we have put in to bring the elephants back to Farmington Hills, MI.
We attempt to provide you additional context and full transparency around the process in this communication and the decision BOT is making at this juncture.
Elephants statues sent back to India in 2020:
As we have published through various communication channels earlier, the JSGD owned elephants were initially rejected by U.S. Customs and Border Protectionas the wood packaging of these elephant statutes did not meet the US dept. of Agriculture standards.
JSGD team worked very diligently with customs and agreed to obtain a release of this shipment, but the shipping company’s unreasonable demand of ~$35k (COVID delays, demurrage charges, shipping cost) forced us not to accept the delivery.Eventually,the shipping company sent back the elephants to India without JSGD’s knowledge in Sept 2020.
Customs Services in Indiahas sold the statues to a third-party buyer in July 2021:
Indian customs released these elephants for sale in an open auction during early 2021. We initiated a dialogue with the Customs authorities in India in early 2021 and successfully removed the elephants from the auction at the time. It was our understanding that we had reached an amicable solution as we had notified our intent to repurchase them directly and bring them back to the U.S. Due to the rapid spread of the delta variant in India, the progress reached a standstill and the communication from the various parties involved stopped for several months during the 1st half of 2021.
It recently caught us by surprise to learn that the Indian Customs sold these elephants to a third-party buyer in an open auction in July 2021, without anyadvance notice to JSGD and our agent. We had no knowledge of this as we remained under the impression that JSGD was the onlyparty interested in repurchasing these elephants. Some of the parties involved with this transaction in India, including third party agents, may only have their own interests in mindto profit from this process, In any event, JSGD was prepared to bid on these elephants at the open auction as part of our alternate strategy, but we did not have an opportunity to do so due to the lack of timely information available to us.
Options for JSGD at this juncture:
Option 1: Pursue the third party to repurchase the elephants
Through our contacts in India, we have already reached out to this third party to attempt yet again to repurchase these elephants directly from them. The seller is asking for an unreasonable amount of money (nearly as much as the cost of carving a new pair ofelephants) and there are challenges within the supply chain at the moment around extremely high shipping costs (four to five times higher than pre-covid estimates). There are also concerns around storage, the timing of the shipment to the U.S. (three to four months at a minimum), and potential damage to these marble statues while in storage.
Option 2: Start fresh
With this alternate, we would go back to the drawing board, develop a strategy to have a new pair of elephants carved in India after obtaining multiple quotes, and also think through the end-to-end logistics to have these elephants arrive here safely, timely and in the most cost-effectivemanner. This alternative would most certainly include lessons learned from our earlier experiences to avoid such costly reoccurrence. We expect this alternative to have a lead time of approximately 8-12 months, but it could take longer as we continue to face the unknowns surrounding the containment of COVID-19 and the challenges within the shipping industry.
BOT’s final decision in August 2021 to start fresh:
BOT held a dedicated discussion in August 2021 to review the details of the two options highlighted above. The team has decided to move forward with option 2 to start fresh as we believe it is an option that is in the best interest of JSGD given where we are at this juncturewith a goal in mind to import the elephant statues safely, timely and in the most cost effective manner possible.
We continue to remain optimistic that we will eventually have theelephantssitting at the doorstep of our beloved temple,enhancing and nurturing its beauty.
If you have any questions or are in a position to assist JSGD in any way possible as we navigate through the next chapter of the elephant journey, please reach out to anyone from the BOT.
Thank you,
Rajiv Shah, Chairman
(On behalf of BOT 2021)