Thrissur: The trend of sparing elephants from temple festivals is catching up in view of the increasing incidents of the animals running amok causing even deaths of people. A temple owned by a tantric family Kavanattumana in Irinjalakkuda here conducted the festival without elephants and introduced chariots for carrying ‘thidambu’ (replica of the idol) for temple ceremonies the other day. The officials of the Kombara Sree Krishna temple told DC that in three other temples owned by the family in Thrissur, they were planning to replace elephants with chariot.
“We had been using an elephant per day during the five-day festival. For the ‘pallivetta’ ceremony when the idol is taken out, we used to have three elephants. But considering the safety of devotees on festival grounds and temple premises we decided to move over to a specially designed chariot at a cost of Rs 2 lakh,” Mr Ravi Namboothiri of Kavanattumana told DC. Tantric scriptures in ‘Vishnusamhita’ have mentioned that the idol can be taken out either on the back of an elephant or a chariot, he said.
“The book mentions the use of a single elephant and not more. But, other tantric scriptures say of using models of animals or chariot,” he noted. Mr V.K. Venkitachalam, secretary of Thrissur-based pro-animal Heritage Animal Task Force, said the trend had started a few years ago and many temples had done away with the practice of parading elephants. “At present there are only 599 captive elephants in Kerala. Now they will get more rest during festive seasons,” said Mr P. Sasikumar, general secretary, Kerala Elephant Owners Federation.
