Lakshmi, the 32-year-old elephant of Sri Manakula Vinayagar Temple in Puducherry, collapsed and died of a suspected cardiac arrest on Wednesday morning.
Lakshmi, accompanied by her two mahouts was on her daily morning walk from her enclosure at Sri Vedapureeswarar Temple on Eswaran Kovil Street when she died.
The carcass of temple elephant Lakshmi, who died on November 30, 2022 morning, was taken to Sri Manakula Vinayagar Temple for the public to be able to pay. | Photo Credit: S.S. KUMAR
The collapse occurred when Lakshmi neared the campus of Calve College Government Higher Secondary School on Kamatchi Amman Kovil Street: she showed signs of fatigue and stopped walking. She then suddenly swooned and collapsed on the road.
The elephant did not respond to commands from the mahouts, and died soon afterwards. When they received this information, the temple authorities, with the help of the traffic police brought in a crane. The body was lifted and brought to the Sri Manakular Vinayagar Temple to enable devotees to offer homage.
Lakshmi was donated to the temple as a 10-year-old when R.V. Janakiraman was the Chief Minister of Puducherry.
Suspected cardiac arrest
A senior official of the Forest Department said that there was no other known reason for the elephant to collapse on the roadside, and cardiac arrest is suspected.
The official added that Lakshmi was under the care of the best veterinarians and her health condition was good. There were no grounds for concern about the animal’s health and all her recent blood reports had also been normal.
Though she was a captive elephant, the authorities had left no stone unturned to make sure she was treated well.
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Sources said that the Government had allotted a two acre plot at Chinnayapuram in Muthialpet, and construction of an enclosure for the elephant was underway.
Buried following autopsy
On Wednesday evening, people turned up in large numbers to pay their last respects to Lakshmi.
Those who paid homage to the elephant included Ministers K. Lakshminarayanan, C. Djeacoumar, MLAs G. Nehru alias Kuppusamy and Richard John Kumar.
The body of Lakshmi was taken out in a procession from the temple premises through Gingee Salai, Jawaharlal Nehru Street, Anna Salai, Maraimalai Adigal Salai, and Cuddalore Road. A team of Veterinarians from Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research (RIVER) conducted an autopsy following which the carcass was buried on a site belonging to Sri Kalatheeswarar-Varadharaja Perumal temple near Cuddalore Road.
PETA expresses sadness
In a statement from Khushboo Gupta, director-advocacy projects, PETA India, the organisation expressed its sadness that Lakshmi was not allowed to live amongst other elephants and forced to endure years of loneliness in captivity.
“Given her suffering, her sudden death sadly comes as no surprise, it means an opportunity for her happiness lost”, said the organisation.
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