Kerala temple chaos: Elephant lifts, throws man during festival

THRISSUR: Temple festivities took an unexpected turn on Thursday morning when a captive tusker lifted and threw a 26-year-old man with its trunk at Annamanada Mahadeva Temple near Mala in Thrissur. Thuranellur Manayil Vivek of Mambra in Erayamkudy, who sustained serious injuries, was admitted at a private hospital in Angamaly. The elephant Akkikkavu Karthikeyan had been obeying the instructions of its mahouts in a docile manner till it attacked Vivek.

Vivek was holding the ‘kolam' (deity's idol) to be given to the person sitting atop the elephant, which was being paraded along with eight other tuskers for Valiya Vilakku festival. As soon as Vivek lifted the kolam the tusker dragged him by his legs, lifted him off the ground and flung him while a shocked group that had assembled to watch the festival stood still.


Fortunately, the elephant calmed down soon after the incident and did not attack other elephants or the hundreds of fans who had come to the temple for the festival, said temple ‘ooralan' (a priest who assists in rituals) Ravi Namboothiri.

When contacted, TN Sajeevan said the hospital has scheduled a surgery for his son on Friday to treat the injuries he sustained on his face. "Vivek's condition is not critical and it is improving. Hospital authorities assured that there is nothing we need to worry about," said Sajeevan.

Secretary of Heritage Animal Task Force (HATF) VK Venkitachalam claimed that a host of problems – continuously forcing the elephant to work for three days, starvation, lack of sleep, torture by mahouts and non-compliance with the mandatory 6m gap between elephants and humans at the festival spot – led to this incident.

Venkitachalam alleged that the elephants paraded at the festival were not given a proper health check-up.

He said HATF has filed complaints before the chief wildlife warden and the intelligence wing of forest department to conduct an enquiry into the incident and register a criminal case against the festival committee, mahouts and owner of the elephant.