Alappuzha: Evoor Kannan, a 26-year-old temple elephant, killed its handler on Wednesday while washing him.
Police said the elephant stomped to death mahout Reni, 31, of Paravoor, at 5.15 pm on the Kottarkavu temple premises. He fell on the ground under the impact of the kick and his head smashed into the nearby rock.
He died on the way to the hospital due to the head injury. "His body is in the mortuary of the district hospital, Mavelikara," a police officer said.
Kannan, attached to Evoor Sreekrishna Swami temple under the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) is notorious for killing his mahouts.
He was to be paraded at the Sreekrishna Swamy temple in the day and
the temporary mahout took him to Kottarkavu temple for bathe before that. When contacted, the TDB's Evoor sub-group officer refused to take questions and cut the call abruptly.
The unfortunate incident comes at a time when this newspaper carried a report on December 13, warning TDB against parading the tusker. It had killed its mahout during Ambalappuzha Sreekrishnaswamy temple festival on March 31, 2013. The TDB listed him as parading elephants early last year doubling its rent from Rs 7,500 to Rs 15,000.
When the issue was taken up with the office of the assistant commissioner, TDB, Haripad, in December, it told this newspaper that its musth continued unstoppable. Following the tragic episode in 2013, the life of Kannan had turned more miserable. It was chained and beaten up mercilessly by fellow mahouts resulting in a deep wound on the front right leg.
It was left at the temple compound without a mahout for a year . For last four years, it had not been used for major parades as the jumbo continued to be mischievous with crowds.
H. Chandrasenan Nair, secretary of Anushtaanam, a forum for conserving temple arts, said Kannan never grew accustomed to humans ever since he was offered to the Evoor temple nine years ago. “He never enjoyed the presence of crowd around and cacophony of percussions and flute," he told DC.
Five years ago, it made headlines after a mahout cut his leg with a machete after he went on a rampage. Following the incident, the forest officials took action against the TDB and barred it from being used for the parades. In September 2013, Kannan again turned violent causing spine injury to mahout.
The Assam-born tusker was offered to the temple by devotee hailing from Haripad. Kannan was in treatment for last three years for ill-health.
