Temple elephants: Animal activists petition Tamil Nadu govt to end practice

Chennai: Animal protection groups of Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in South India and other parts of country have appealed to the Tamil Nadu government to end the practice of keeping elephants in temples.

The animal activists have petitioned Tamil Nadu Minister of Forests, S Mathiventhan and state minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE), PK Sekar Babu against the practice of keeping elephants in temples.

The animal rights groups raised the issue after a 54-year-old elephant, Subbulakshmi who was a temple elephant succumbed to her injuries after the roof under which she was kept, caught fire.

Subbulakshmi was an elephant at the Sri Shanmughanathar Peruman temple in Kundrakudi in Sivaganga district of Tamil Nadu.

It may be recalled that concerns regarding Subbulakshmi’s physical and mental health were raised by animal rights groups.

Requests for urgent retirement of the animal on compassionate grounds were raised by concerned activists as early as December 20, 2021.

A representation was then submitted to the Chief Wildlife Warden of Tamil Nadu requesting to shift the elephant to a care facility for long term veterinary treatment and rehabilitation.

The then wildlife warden of Tamil Nadu Shekar Kumar Niraj had constituted a committee of experts, veterinarians and members of the animal welfare community to inspect four temple elephants in Tamil Nadu that included Subbulakshmi.

The Committee had, in its final recommendations, recognised deprivation of social interactions with other elephants, constant tethering, obesity because of poor diet and lack of constant access to water for drinking and bathing as the great ills facing Subbulakshmi and the three other temple elephants it inspected.

However, it failed to recommend her retirement, a move which would have saved her life.

The committee, in conclusion, despite the entire exercise and recognition of facts showing abject poor welfare, relegated the future fate of Subbulakshmi to the hands of the temple management.

The Madras High Court had in 2023 ordered that no temple or private person in the state could acquire any elephant and had directed the officials to inspect all temple as well as privately-owned elephants.

The court had also asked the government to decide on shifting all these elephants to government-run rehabilitation camps.

The animal protection groups have now demanded that the Tamil Nadu government end the practice of keeping elephants in temples.