THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is with much fanfare that Mukkola Mahaganapathy Temple here has announced the arrival of ‘superstar’ jumbo Thechikottukavu Ramachandran on May 1. “I don’t repeat history. I create history,” is the Rajni-style punchline attributed to the majestic tusker in the posters that have come up around Mukkola near Mannanthala here. However, elephant activists have taken strong exception to the temple’s decision to parade Thechkottukavu Ramachandran during its annual festival on May 1. They say the tusker is blind.
More than that, he is a rogue elephant who had killed 11 people in the last 25 years. An examination conducted by a group of veterinary physicians had found that Ramachandran was stone-blind or totally blind in its right eye and sand-blind in the other. On the basis of this, the chief wildlife warden had on February 9, 2016, prohibited the use of Ramachandran in religious festivals. Later, on May 5, 2016, the additional principal chief conservator of forests (vigilance), had issued another circular barring festival authorities from parading the tusker.
Heritage Animal Task Force secretary V K Venkitachalam has shot off a missive to Animal Welfare Board of India, the state DGP and chief wildlife warden insisting that the ban on Ramachandran should be implemented. He has also enclosed visuals of Ramachandran running amok at a festival ground on a week ago on February 19. "The visual clearly shows the tendency of this elephant to behave in a distraught manner whenever it is forced to participate at festival,” he said. The video also shows the elephant is put under heavy chains, a clear evidence of torture. “Even though the state Forest Department had banned the elephant at festival sites due to its blindness, festival organisers continue to hire this elephant paying hefty money to forest officials,” Venkitachalam said in his letter.
