Thrissur: Plaint against police commissioner Yathish Chandra for touching jumbo

Thrissur: Thrissur-based pro-animal group Heritage Animal Task Force has filed a complaint with Governor, state chief wild life warden and state police chief against city police commissioner Yathish Chandra for touching an elephant while carrying a child on his shoulders during the annual ‘Aanayoottu’ ceremony held at Lord Vadakkumnathan temple here on Sunday.

According to V.K. Venkitachalam of the Task Force, the police commissioner who had taken special care in keeping the safe distance of public away from the elephants while parading them at Thrissur Pooram was standing close to the jumbo in civil dress and touching the animal.

A circular dated 20.03.2013 of state wildlife department has specifically mentioned that a safe distance of 3 metres has to be maintained from the public while parading elephants. “Only mahouts could touch the elephant,” he noted.

M.N. Jayachandran, member of the District Elephant Managing Committee in Thrissur as a nominee of AWBI said that police and forest officials could initiate action against the top cop and it was a violation of the rules.

When contacted, Mr Chandra said he was not aware of such a complaint.