Two elephants ran amok in Palakkad district and another in Pathanamthitta during temple festivals on Sunday. Four persons were injured in Palakkad, while in Pathanamthitta, the elephant damaged two vehicles and uprooted trees.
The pachyderm, Narayanankutty, ran amok at the annual ‘parackezhunnellippu' ceremony of the Puthenkavumala Mahadevar temple, at Nellad, near Vallamkulam, in Pathanamthitta at 1.30 p.m. on Sunday. It was tranquillised and tethered after three hours by an Elephant Squad team, led by C. Gopakumar, veterinary surgeon.
The mahout had a narrow escape after the animal shoved him aside with its trunk. The elephant briskly marched down the road and ambushed a car parked nearby. The vehicle got crushed in the offensive. It then went on to drag a mini-lorry for over 50 metres before toppling the vehicle. The animal also uprooted some coconut trees on the wayside.
Dr. Gopakumar said the elephant was not in musth. The elephant had killed five mahouts earlier. It was in the news recently after it crushed to death a mahout near Alappuzha before walking all the way to its ‘home' temple at Nannoor.
A police team led by Circle Inspector (Thiruvalla) Vinu Varghese and sub-inspector G. Santhoshkumar reached the spot and blocked vehicular traffic on T.K. Road. A large number of people had assembled by then. Traffic remained disrupted for over two hours.
In Palakkad, the incident occurred at the festival at Parakkoottikavu, near Kulappully, at night. The people injured are Arun, 24, of Thonurkara; Pushpan, 34, of Palakkad; Mohandas, 55, of Karakkodi, Mundukotturkurissi, and Aneesh, 18, of Kootanad.
They have been admitted to a private hospital at Vaniyamkulam, the police said. They were injured while trying to escape. The elephants were brought under control by the mahouts and the police.
Keywords: elephant menace
Comments:
I think it's about time we stopped having elephants at temples. The forests are their natural habitat. Aren't we depriving them of their natural life by raising them in cities & towns in an alien atmosphere?
The habitat of these elephants are gone. They are forced to live with
humans who hurt them. They are not fed well, not taken good care of.
Hence these attacks.
Another case of an elephant going on the rampage and attacking people. How many more people must die before organisers learn to plan such events? Together with police forces, would it be too much to expect some ready to use tranqulisers at the first sign of trouble in public gatherings where elephants are involved?
Such incidents are recurring and some severe decision should be made to put an end to such accidents even though there may be many vested interests may block to put a stop for using Elephants in festivals, whether it is Trissur Pooram or a Rathotsavam in Kalpathy.
hey human beings - leave me alone -- you are harassing me and using me to your advantage - let me go to the jungle and live peacefully
lovingly
narayankutty
"The elephant had killed five mahouts earlier". How many more mahouts is he going to kill? Nobody wants to work at night at some noisy temple festivals.
Temple Elephants will continued to be ill treated to keep them
captive, in the name of religion and a state passively looking on,
scared to death of "hurting" religious sentiments. This sad thing
will continue to happen as people have become desensitized to the
senseless cruelty regularly to keep "tradition" alive!
Please return them to the forests where they belong and let them be free. Keeping them in urban conditions and restraining them with chains is inhuman.
I think, as a society we should move away from these medieval and grand symbolic traditions of using elephants in processions and other rituals. They are getting extinct and before they finally do, let them live peacefully in where they belong.
Neither Gods nor elephants are happy at our rituals. We make our rules because neither of them could 'tell' us that it's time.
Let them go.....it's time.
It is hypocrisy to keep Elephants captive as temple property whilst supposedly venerating all life. Any "worshipers" and temple executives who need the 'tamasha' of a caparisoned Elephant to bolster and display their religious fervor are being sadistic and cruel. Even if these animals are well tended to in their captive state, they are still a great way from the life their species is entitled to live in the wild. Maharajahs sought to enhance their own status with the display of these animals at ceremonial events, and this archaic tradition has outlived any reasonable purpose, if ever there was one.
If an Elephant goes berserk and kills people in its disturbed mental state, it will eventually be declared a danger and will be destroyed by order of some highly placed district officer. The elephant may pay with his life, while the ridiculous exercise in civic idiocy is perpetuated. Tranquilizing the animal and returning it to captive servitude is not an acceptable solution. Free them NOW.
The elephants have the might and they are showing the same in public when they are disillusioned with the treatment they get from humans.But the cows (25000 per day)which are slaughtered in Kerala have no means of expressing their anger as they do not have might to express the same.what a pity!!
In olden days, we have enough space and food to live elephants along with us as a pet. Now a days we do not have space and elephants required foods (even in forest also now). Then, Why are our people keeping elephants in temples and procession? Elephants are giant. We should not arrest them in Temples and we should not drill them as we like. It should live freely forest.
I repeat Greg Coelho's comment:
Please return them to the forests where they belong and let them be
free. Keeping them in urban conditions and restraining them with
chains is inhuman and inanimal(?).
Greg - your comment is the best that I have heard so far. I think its time that we returned these majestic animals to where they belong, in the forest, with their families. Religious practices should free minds and souls and not keep them chained to a temple. The Indian govt should take steps to return these lovely and intelligent animals to a sanctuary where they can spend their life in peace and not surrounded by noisy humans.
The government is responsible for those who affected by elephants attacks .This is not a new problem .Every year the same thing happens.The government should implement strict orders and must take strict action against those who violating the rules
some of the elephants were used on those days cos of no cranes and automobiles.. now facilities are there., then these should be sent to their homes.. instead of having them with us...
This report is quite biased to humans. The reporter was only interested to present a story of how an "Elephants strike terror in athanamthitta, PalakkadIt". Although he clearly mentioned the damages caused by the elephants, but never tried to find out what made the elephants got angry
suddenly. It is surely because of ill-treatment done to them by some humans.Please make a thorough report rather than accusing an animal of "striking terror".
Kerala notably amongst Assam and other states uses elephants for show biz and labour. It is disgusting at totally beyond rationale for the risk involved both to man and the animal. The conditions and absence of an uniform code for treatment of these wonderful creature are deplorable, often bordering on outright cruelty. The question is "At this 21st century can't we do without domesticated and captured elephants?"."Yes" is the answer hands down. Let them roam free in the jungle.