Unauthorized parade of more than 15 Elephants at Panthakkal Bhagavathi temple near Pattambi in Palakkad District of Kerala State resulted in attack of one Elephant by another.  SEE VIDEO : CLICK HERE

Sir,
Yesterday, the Panthakkal Bhagavathi Temple Festival in Palakkad District became a venue of attack by two Elephants when more than 15 Elephants were forced to stand in a row inside the compound wall of the temple.The Elephant named Pattambi Manikandan having a track record of killing 5 persons in past 7 years attacked another Elephant named Cherupulassery Rajasekharan having wounds all over its body due to previous torture. Both these Elephants were paraded without obtaining the mandatory permission from the District Collector of Palakkad, who is the Chairman of District Level Monitoring Committee to ensure prevention of cruelty to Elephant as part of festival. Even after the happening of this incident, both the District Collector and the District Social Forestry Assistant Conservator of State Forest Department have not initiated any enquiry into this type of abuse of Elephants inside the Panthakkal Bhagavathi Temple. The top officials of the Palakkad District including the District Police Chief, the District Collector, the District Chief Veterinary Officer are not showing any interest to implement the Supreme Court order dated 18th August 2015 which had stipulated concrete guidelines to parade Elephants for festivals in Kerala. The Elephant parade guidelines issued by Kerala specifically states that the minimum space of four meters between each Elephant paraded in a row must be kept always mainly for avoiding touching of one Elephant by another with sensitive body part of Elephant like its tusk, trunk or tail. Here, the video of the Elephant attack at Panthakkal Temple clearly shows that such a four meter gap between Elephants was not kept by the festival authorities. Similarly, the Elephant parade guidelines specifically states that the mahouts and festival committees do not compel the Elephant to keep its forehead in upward position by using sharp objects like knife or ankush. But the video clearly shows that three Elephants in the video were compelled to keep their foreheads in upward position by using knife and ankush in the hands of mahouts. The festival committee members are also indulging in prompting the mahouts to use such sharp objects near the neck and the trunk to persuade the Elephants to keep their foreheads up and up. This type of cruelty inflicted on Elephants is a clear violation of provisions of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960 and the Wild Life Protection Act 1972.

The Elephant named Cherupulassery Rajasekharan had suffered serious injuries due to yesterdays attack by the other Elephant named Pattambi Manikandan by using it’s tusk. Several persons were admitted to several hospitals with serious injuries in the melle. The attack initiated by the Elephant Pattambi Manikandan which was standing at the left side of the Elephant named Cherupulassery Rajasekharan by using tusk is the best example of the stress and the frustration of any Elephant which is forced to keep its forehead upwards for more than half an hour. We expect that your authoritative office will ensure strict penal actions against the Elephant owners, the festival organizers, Elephant contractors and mahouts who were responsible for this type of abuse of Elephants. Yesterday, the Supreme Court of India had reiterated that the animals have a right to dignity and fair treatment quoting the subsection 11 of section 3 of PCA Act 1960 which states that animals also have a right against human beings not to be tortured and against infliction of unnecessary pain or suffering.