Ever heard of ‘transfers’ for elephants? Though it sounds weird, it is a fact if one were to go by the decision of the TTD administration to supplant the services of the temple elephant — Padmavati.
The elephant had been in the divine service at Tirumala for more than 25 years. As is the practice, it was stationed for a couple of hours twice a day in front of the main temple complex and sent to its camp soon after the procession of the deity in the evenings.
The sudden replacement orders reportedly came in the wake of widespread criticism that it had turned into a huge source of income to its mahout. Devotees attach vast sentiment to the temple elephants. They strongly believe that the ‘jumbo blessing’ (wherein the elephant places its trunk on the head of the devotees) brings them good luck. Taking advantage of the sentiments, the mahouts trained it in such a way that unless the devotees shelled some currency/coins, it never raised its trunk to bless them. Though the jumbo blessing is common phenomenon at all the temples, the allegation that the TTD mahout grew richer by several lakhs of rupees every year has become a cause of concern to the management.
Perturbed at the mounting criticism, the temple administration in the first instance transferred the mahout and imposed restrictions on the stay of the elephants in the vicinity of the temple complex. Incidentally, the jumbo which had developed an affinity with the mahout, reportedly fell sick. With this the administration motored it down to Tirupati and engaged another elephant — Lakshmi (from its dairy farm in Tirupati) — in the service of the presiding deity from Saturday.
