Additional magistrate Nishantha Peiris of the Colombo magistrate court ordered remanding in custody of Uduwe Dhammaloka until March 17. Dhammaloka was earlier arrested in his Colombo temple.
He will be charged for an offense under the public properties act, police said.
Dhammaloka had denied the charge claiming that the baby elephant had been left abandoned at his temple premises.
The Supreme Court yesterday refused a fundamental rights application by a judge to prevent his arrest for the same charge of keeping a baby elephant without a license.