Thiruvananthapuram: A boyish curiosity could land a young member of the erstwhile royal family in trouble. The erstwhile royal, Aditya Varma, was clicked standing near Pambady Rajan with the Kowdiar Palace in the background, his hands placed softly on the jumbo’s tusk. Heritage Animal Task Force secretary V K Venkitachalam has invoked a 2012 state government order to charge Varma with flouting the law.
Venkitachalam, in a missive sent to the Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Animal Welfare Board of India, stated that the order stipulated that no person other than the mahout of the elephant had the right to touch the tusk of elephant. “But at Kowdiar Palace, one of the members of royal family posed before the media touching the tusk of a private elephant,” his complaint stated. The missive further stated that the palace did not have the tradition of parading elephants, and therefore, exhibiting an elephant in the palace premises was illegal. He said that the 2012 order, issued to limit the use of elephants in festivals, had prohibited the use of elephants in new functions.
Venkitachalam said that the order had also mandated that if at all an elephant had to be exhibited it required the permission of the assistant conservator of forest. “Here the Royal family paraded the elephant without obtaining the statutory permission from the ACF of Thiruvananthapuram Social Forestry,” he said. Aditya Varma was amused when told about the complaint. “Touching an elephant is quite a common sight in our part of the world. Is action taken against all such cases,” he asked.
Venkitachalam’s other grouse was that Pambady Rajan was allowed to enter the premises of Sree Padmanabha Swamy temple on the day it was seen with Varma. “This entry of the private elephant into the temple without obtaining special permission from the district collector is also quite illegal,” he said in the complaint. Mr Varma said that it was as part of an offering that the elephant entered the temple.
