A captive elephant overturned a cargo autorickshaw and brought down a motorcyclist near the North Paravur KSRTC bus stand in Ernakulam district of Kerala on Saturday (March 1, 2025) morning.
The elephant, Moothakunnam Padmanabhan owned by the Moothakunnam Sree Narayana Mangalam Temple of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam, created tension in the North Paravur town for close to two hours before it was brought to the temple where it was chained.
The elephant which was chained at a plot at Moothakunnam was set to be taken for a parade at a temple at Vypeen in the morning. However, it resisted boarding the vehicle and started walking with the mahout still atop. It reportedly took a narrow bylane along the route to Vadakkekara where it overturned the autorickshaw while also leaving people running for cover.
The jumbo eventually returned to the temple where it was chained, following which the mahout managed to alight. The elephant squad and the Vadakkekara police rushed to the scene.
Musth ruled out
Though there were reports that the elephant had exhibited signs of musth, social forestry wing sources in the district committee under the Kerala Captive Elephant (Management & Maintenance) Rules and chaired by the District Collector for supervising parading of elephants, including in temple festivals, ruled it out. The elephant was fit enough to be paraded and had the fitness certificate issued by a veterinary doctor. It’s musth period was over in November last year.
“However, this elephant is known for its resistance to board vehicles as part of its transportation, which seems to be the case today as well. It resisted boarding the vehicle and started walking, though it was more or less not violent. There seems no violation of the Kerala Captive Elephant (Management & Maintenance) Rules. However, we have asked the Ernakulam Range officer of the social forestry wing to further probe the incident,” said sources.
The Kerala High Court has put in place strict restrictions for parading elephants in temple festivals. The court had in January directed the Devaswom officer of the Thripunithura Poornathrayeesa temple to tender an unconditional apology in a contempt of court case initiated over his alleged failure to comply with the court’s directives on parading elephants (while maintaining the minimum distance between them and also between elephants and the crowd) during the temple festival.
Published – March 01, 2025 04:25 pm IST
