The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry has stepped in to put pressure on calls for the three Malaysian elephants in the care of a Japanese zoo since March 11, to be returned.

Its minister, Arthur Joseph Kurup, said that while the ministry is not a party to the Taiping Zoo and Night Safari’s transfer agreement with the Tennoji Zoo in Osaka, there are legitimate grounds behind animal welfare groups’ demand that the elephants be brought home.

“If it is found that the...