In a horrific, but not unusual, incident on November 18, a temple elephant in Tamil Nadu trampled her mahout and a relative of the attendant to death. It is unclear what triggered the elephant’s anger. But the India chapter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has offered to gift a robotic elephant to the Subramania Swamy temple in Tiruchendur town in return for Deivanai’s release from custody and rehabilitation at a sanctuary, “where she can live without weapons and chains, in the company of other elephants”.
According to a report in The Hindu newspaper, Deivanai was in the fenced portion of the temple compound when the incident took place in the wee hours. Assistant mahout S. Udaykumar, 45, of V.O. Chidambaranar Nagar in the town was on duty. His relative, K. Sisubalan, 57, of Kanniyakumari was also present.
Suddenly, at around 4:30 a.m., the elephant attacked Sisubalan. Udaykumar attempted to rescue his relative and was also attacked. Head mahout Radhakrishnan rushed to the spot, sprinkled water on the elephant, and sent it back to the cage, where it was chained as a precautionary measure, temple staff told the newspaper.
While Sisubalan died on the spot, Udaykumar died at the Tiruchendur Government Hospital. Senior officials of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, who visited the shrine for inquiries, told the newspaper the elephant may have been overworked or suffered injuries during ceremonies, aggravating it.
PETA India, in a letter to the Forest Department and the state’s Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, called for moving the elephant to a sanctuary “to heal from the trauma of decades of loneliness and captivity”. To help facilitate the transfer, PETA India has offered to gift a mechanical or robotic elephant to the Subramania Swamy temple.
In the letter, PETA India noted that Deivanai was controlled with an ankush, or hooked spear usually made of iron, is suffering from a skin infection, and is kept chained on a concrete floor. The animal welfare organization also raised concerns that Deivanai was forced to “bless” devotees and take part in rituals, putting people’s lives at risk.
According to PETA India, there have been many dangerous incidents involving captive elephants in Tamil Nadu. In recent years, an elephant held at the Thiruparankundram Subramaniya Swamy temple trampled a mahout to death; another at the Samayapuram Mariamman temple crushed and killed a mahout; a third attacked and killed a 35-year-old woman who tried to touch the animal during worship at a temple festival in Tirunelveli. Last year, an elephant named Masini killed a mahout at the Theppakadu elephant camp. The same elephant had killed her mahout at the Samayapuram Mariamman temple in Trichy.
Mechanical elephants are already in use in at least eight temples and are loved by devotees and local politicians. Of these, six have been donated by PETA India. These are Irinjadappilly Raman at the Sree Krishna temple in Thrissur, Mahadevan at the Thrikkayil Mahadeva temple in Cochin, Baladhasan at the Sree Pournamikavu temple in Trivandrum, Vadakkumbad Sankaranarayanan at the Edayar Sree Vadakkumbad Shiva Vishnu temple in Cannanore, Shiva at the Jagadguru Sri Veerasimhasana Mahasamsthana Math in Karnataka and Niranjana at the Yedeyur Sri Siddalingeshwara Swamy temple, also in Karnataka.
