A 22-year-old elephant ran through the city roads in panic when crackers were burst during a temple festival on Saturday night. It was sent back to Kerala under the supervision of Forest and police department officials on Sunday.
District Forest Officer A. Periyasamy clarified to The Hindu that the elephant did not have musth but panicked only because of crackers were burst from close quarters. It had become restless because of the behaviour of the large crowd. “Enquiry with the mahout revealed that the elephant is not used to large and noisy gathering of people as the temple festivals which he attended in Kerala were not so,” he said.
The elephant was brought for the festival in a truck on December 3 and was said to be restless as there were a large number of people and they were touching him at frequent intervals, forest officials said.
K. Raveendran, an animal activist and president of Nature Society of Tirupur, said it was a torture to make the elephant stand in the middle of the crowd continuously for days. “Elephants should be brought and returned within few hours”, he said.
The elephant ran away with an assistant mahout and a temple priest who were sitting astride holding the traditional umbrella and deity usually used in temple festivals.
The main mahout ran for a km and pacified the animal.
After checking its health, the animal was sent back to Kerala.
