A mahout was critically injured after an elephant he was giving a bath ahead of parading in connection with a temple ritual turned violent and gored him.
The mahout identified as Ratnakaran (57) of Onakkoor suffered a deep wound on his rib and was rushed to a private hospital nearby. "The wound caused by the tusk is fairly deep. We have moved him into ventilator," said hospital sources.
The incident occurred within the premises of the Sree Chandrashekharapuram Siva Temple at Muppathadam at around 7.30 a.m. It is not clear whether something caused the provocation for the elephant to momentarily turn violent.
The elephant identified as Polakulam Vishu Narayanan was brought to the temple as part of the festival. "He was paraded last night and was being washed ahead of being paraded as part of Arattu when the incident happened. The elephant didn't run amok or anything and was calm after that. The rituals were held as usual albeit two hours behind the schedule," said Padmanabhan, secretary, of the temple trust.
The temple was evacuated of devotees for two hours till the elephant was chained. A squad of mahouts and police and forest teams had rushed to the scene. Though arrangements were also made for firing a tranquiliser shot, it wasn't needed, Binanipuram police said.
