On this World Elephant Day, Heritage Animal Task Force of India (HATFI) is launching its International Signature Campaign to cast a dent on the Kerala government's pocket book by highlighting the plight of the suffering elephants. Elephants are paraded beneath the scorching sun with wounds all over their body to boost its tourism revenue and tourists seem to be oblivious to the atrocities against these gentle giants.

 The Kerala government is flouting its own regulations, including the Wild Life Protection Act 1972, the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960, the Performing Animals Registration Rules 2001 and Kerala Captive Elephants Management and Maintenance Rule 2012. These acts clearly impose a blanket ban on parading Elephants with wounds, blindness and other physical weakness.  But sadly the government officials from the Departments of Tourism, Animal Husbandry, Police and Forest and Wild Life ignore these rules and provide tacit support to parade Elephants having all these ailments at festival places.

The festival organizers and Elephant contractors are in bed with these political parties who favor parading of Elephants with various ailments. Therefore it is imperative to protest against this type of organized crime against Wild Animals in the name of cultural and religious celebrations.

You can witness more horror treatments of Elephants in Kerala as part of temple rituals if you watch the scenes from www.godsinshackles.com (The movie gods in shackles was nominated by the prestigious International Elephant Film Festival at the United Nations General Assembly and has won 7 International Film Awards including the Los Angeles Cinefest Award, Hollywood International Independent Documentary Film Festival Award, The IMPACT Docs – Award of Merit, Golden Award at the World Documentary Awards. You can watch the movie trailer of the multiple award winning documentary by clicking here:  https://vimeo.com/156208028

Here's another video depicting the parading of wounded elephants Cherplasery Rajasekharan as part of temple festival at Edathirinji Sivakumareswara Temple on 20th February 2016. This temple was established by Sree Narayana Gurudevan who advised all the devotees to keep elephants and fireworks away from worship places.  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9NrbB0F1e_yTFp0TG9SWC1TaUU

Thiruvambadi Temple in Trissur is notorious for neglecting and abusing its elephants. On 9th August 2016 (Tuesday) a 42 year old Elephant, illegally kept inside Thiruvambadi Temple in Thrissur District for daily rituals collapsed inside that temple complex due to various ailments which were visible to human eyes for past 21 days. But even after lodging several complaints to government authorities, none of these officials used their power to save that animal from such cruel practices of temple authorities. The temple also uses another Elephant named Lakshmi which had lost visibility of left eye due to torturous practices. 

Even though no religious scriptures of India mention using Elephants to carry of idols of God, the Managers of worship places in Kerala continue to exploit them as part of daily ritual and for festivals and make profit. This cruel practice should be stopped immediately.

I enclose herewith an article published by New Indian Express and the Hindu National daily on 10th August 2015 (Thursday) on various types of cruelties inflicted by Managers of worship places in Kerala.

 http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/task-force-to-launch-signature-campaign/article8971650.ece
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/sangita-iyer/elephant-animal-cruelty_b_11414690.html
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7izGCvG0P_1TTBXQjVDTjZNNjNqMzVjR2hNaDUtMnhuak44

 Kerala is a state enriched with vast forest areas which are also Elephant corridors through all the 14 districts of that state. But due to the lack of enforcement of forest rules, these Elephant corridors are encroached by wealthiest owners of tourism resorts, quarries and cement manufacturing companies. Therefore, as the secretary of the HATFI, I plead for your urgent attention to sign this petition urging the chief minister of Kerala State and Prime Minister of India to impose an immediate ban on parading of Elephants at festival places in Kerala state by the Managers of worship places. Please express your solidarity to boycott tourism visits to India as long as the Union Government of India and the Kerala Government declare a blanket ban on use of Elephants as part of festivals in worship places.

Kerala can definitely learn from the Jagannatha temple of Puri in Orissa State that organizes festival which attract the largest number of devotees from all parts of India and the world. At that temple festival, no live Elephants are used for carrying idols of Lord Jagannatha, Lord Balabadra and Devi Subhadra. It is the muscle power of Devotees that move three huge chariots to 14 kilometers in Three days as part of such ratholsava. This proves that no Elephant is necessary to carry idol of god even at a festival that draws maximum number of devotees in India. If any tourist wish to visit Kerala, they should visit ONLY after the state creates genuine Elephant sanctuaries where Elephants without chains roam freely enjoying the lush green inside forests, so they can experience the true wealth of nature.