Incident at Sabarimala in which an elderly lady was killed by Elephant named Malayinkeezhu Vallabhan reiterate the urgency of stoppage of the unnecessary practice of using chained Elephant at Sabarimala for carrying idol. Immediately after that incident, the temple authorities conducted the procession of the idol without using Elephant and entrusted the priest to carry the idol in his hand. Using the hand of the priest to carry the idol during idol procession is the age old practice in many temples in Kerala. But the ego of the temple authorities to use Elephants to carry the idol is now proved fatal for devotees in temples like Sabarimala where killing of a devotee by a festival Elephant is unheard in the past. Incidentally, this Elephant have a track record of killing two mahouts within past 4 years. The Elephant parade rules ordered by Supreme Court of India specifically states that Elephants with a track record of killing human beings must be barred from festival processions and other uses. For past 2 days, the Elephant Vallabhan was literally starved at Sabarimala Sannidhanam as the palm leaves brought for the Elephant was swallowed by Wild Elephant which had encroached into the place where such palm leaves were stored carelessly. There was no proper shelter shed facility or facility to provide 250 litres of pure water per day and 400 Kgms of palm leaves per day for the Elephant Vallabhan which was brought there to carry the idol of Malikapurathamma. This type of irresponsible attitude by Sabarimala temple officers is a quite violation of the Elephant parade rules. This Elephant was tethered near the staff quarters of the Devaswom Board and several building materials were kept carelessly at that place. In simple words, the Elephant Vallabhan was totally ignored by the Sabarimala temple authorities in the name of festival procession at Sabarimala. Many Elephants kept by temples in Pathanamthitta district were kept away from Sabarimala and deployment of Vallabhan from Malayinkeezhu Devaswom to Sabarimala is a blatant violation of Elephant parade rules. The use of captive Elephants for the festival processions at Sabarimala was conducted without obtaining the prior permission of district collector of All the officials having the authority of keeping Elephants of Thiruvithamkoor Devaswom Board are responsible for this type of blatant violation of misuse of Elephants at the Sabarimala Temple. Pathanamthitta as per the Supreme Court order dated ; 18th August 2015. All the officials having the authority of keeping Elephants of Thiruvithamkoor Devaswom Board are responsible for this type of blatant violation of misuse of Elephants at the Sabarimala Temple. Another matter of concern is that the seriously wounded lady was not attended properly for 20 minutes immediately after the incident. Then she was transferred to Pamba hospital inside the Tractor! and then from that hospital her wounded body was transferred to Kottayam Medical College. Before reaching the Kottayam Medical College, the wounded lady breathed last. This shows the disaster management team at Sabarimala was totally unequipped with any speedy and effective transport system to bring the fatally wounded lady from Sabarimala to the nearby well equipped hospital. This type of mismanagement of disaster is not expected from Sabarimala Temple administration which boast of well prepared disaster management system up to this date. Therefore, we expect that your authoritative office will use this opportunity to put an end to the unnecessary practice of using chained Elephants to carry idol of god with immediate effect.

On 15th January 2015, a second mahout named Vasu (55 yrs) was found dead near the Elephant named Kongad Kuttisankaran at a place named Narayanankulangara temple, where the Elephant was paraded at night. It is believed that the mahout named Vasu collapsed to the ground and died when some persons approached to question him about the misbehavior of the first mahout at the festival place after consuming some liquor. This tragic incident occurred at a place where 6 other Elephants were paraded with Kongad Kuttisankaran. This Elephant parade was also an unauthorized event. Both the district collector of Ernakulam and Ernakulam Social Forestry Assistant Conservator had not permitted such an event. This type of unauthorized Elephant parades conducted by private temple authorities at the whims and pleasure of festival organizers and Elephant contractors are causing this type of accidental deaths to mahouts and members of devotees which are not properly recorded by both the Police and District Administration in many districts of Kerala. Therefore, practice of using Elephants for festivals must be stopped immediately.