Thrissur/Kochi: The traditional Thrissur Pooram may become a pale shadow of its original self with the restrictions imposed by the High Court and other authorities on its conduct in the wake of the Paravur tragedy. The Pooram organisers have stated that there was a premeditated move from different quarters against the spectacle. Both the devaswoms of Paramekkavu and Thiruvambadi along with committee members of eight temples taking part in the Pooram said that unless the government intervened at the earliest, the two-century-old Pooram would be reduced to a single-elephant show. The HC will hear the case on Thursday.
Apart from the interim order of the High Court banning fireworks at night, both the devaswoms received an order from the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Chief Wildlife Warden of Kerala saying that elephants could not be paraded from 10 am to 5 pm. While lining up elephants for the Pooram, the belly-to-belly distance should be three metres and the face of the pachyderms four metres away from the other, the letter said.
The devaswom officials said that the orders would hamper the festival. “The chief wildlife warden has become more loyal than the king. An interim order of 27 pages on the fireworks (by HC) is something unusual. The government has to rein in the officials and if there is no Pooram, there will be a law-and-order issue and for that the organisers can be arrested as well,” Mr M. Madhav-ankutty, president of Thiruvambadi devaswom, told this newspaper. “How could the Pooram be conducted without sound and by lining up elephants for events like ‘Kudama-ttam’ by leaving 10 feet between them? he asked.
Meanwhile, Mar Andrews Thazhath, Archbishop of Thrissur, has backed the Pooram. In a press release, he said that the government should intervene and sort out the issue. “It will be a black spot on the cultural capital if the Pooram proceedings are disrupted. The government should provide necessary security cover and ensure safety to hold the cultural extravaganza without any disruption,” the bishop said. He also said that festivals had been playing a significant role in maintaining the communal amity in the state.
Another emergency meeting of both the devaswoms would be held late on Wednesday night to discuss the latest developments. The district collector took over control of the firework storage building on Wednesday. Collector V. Ratheesan in his order said that the storage room should be opened only in the presence of the district officials. The order also stipulated that the keys of the room should be handed over to the tahsildar.
No excess fireworks, officials told:
The officials were asked to ensure that explosive material was not in excess of the permissible quantity. The exact quantity of the gun powder should also be recorded in the register. The Thiruvambadi and Paramekkav devaswoms, the organisers of the Pooram, have decided to implead in the case before the Kerala High Court in this regard.
They plan to seek permission from the court on Thursday for the conduct of the Pooram by pointing out the exception granted to it by the Supreme Court in 2007. The devaswom committees are also hopeful of a favourable stand by the government. The Pooram fans are also worried about the position taken by the state DGP seeking a total ban on fireworks in the state. If the DGP files this as an affidavit before the court, it is likely to impact the case adversely. A group of Pooram aficionados held a protest march from Paramekkavu to Sakthan Nagar on Wednesday demanding the conduct of the Pooram in its traditional form.
