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| Elephants during training theguardian.com |
Elephants have long held a place of pride in Indian culture—symbols of strength, wisdom, and divinity. Ancient texts like the Matanga Lila offered detailed guidelines on caring for them, acknowledging their intelligence, emotions, and social bonds. In kingdoms from the Mauryans to the Mughals, elephants were respected companions in warfare and ceremonial life, granted dignity, space, and freedom to roam in forests.
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| Chained elephnats,Kerala..abc.net.au |
Above image: Chained temple elephants, Kerala: When the festival season arrives temple elephants are also getting ready to dotheir task. But before that they undergo horrible torture. They are made to stand with their soft-padded feet on tarred roads for hours in the hot sun and sometimes subjected to sharp blows of the ankush/bullhook. They are chained for months during musth as their behavior become extremely violent, more so among the young bulls. Though the common people are aware, such animaltorture issues must be addressed by the state government.......
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| Elephants with wounds thehindu.com |
Above image: Stories of ill-treatment and torture of captive elephants surface before the commencement of festival seasons. Unable to bear the harsh treatment and torture, beefed up by madding crowd and sound of drums they become restless and may run amuck during festivities.......
Many temple elephants living in stark contrast to this legacy now, they are tethered for hours, paraded through noisy crowds, forced to endure firecrackers and loudspeakers, and housed in cramped, concrete enclosures far removed from their natural habitat. Incidents like the deaths at the 2024 Manakulangara temple festival in Kerala—when two elephants, startled by fireworks, ran amok, killing three people—are tragic but not isolated. From Rajeshwari in Tamil Nadu to Thechikottukavu Ramachandran in Kerala, these animals often display signs of stress, aggression, and trauma.
Most temple elephants in Kerala are privately owned and rented out for profit, commodified in a ritual system that rarely sees them as sentient beings. Their treatment violates both traditional ethical practices and India’s modern legal standards under the Wildlife Protection Act and the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.
Yet, change is underway. Temples such as Irinjadappilly Sree Krishna in Thrissur and Thiruvairanikulam Mahadeva in Aluva have embraced mechanical elephants or symbolic alternatives. Spiritual leaders from Sree Narayana Guru to contemporary voices call for compassion over spectacle.
Culture must evolve. Like we moved beyond sati and human sacrifices, we must rethink animal use in religious rites. True devotion cannot coexist with cruelty. A tradition that once revered elephants must now protect them—by choosing compassion over captivity.
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/enslavement-of-kerala-temple-elephants/13894550
