Tuskers prove to be a handful this season

Thrissur: Even as the

festival season

continues in the district over

19 injured elephants

were returned from parade and 18 elephants ran amok.

On Tuesday, an elephant tried to attack two girls at Chentrappinni near Thrissur and one of them was injured while trying to escape.

The elephant named Nandu Ezhuthachan Sankaranarayanan which was brought to a temple festival tried to attack the students. The students who saw the elephants were standing in front of the gate but the tusker tried to attack them.

When the girls managed to move away the elephant hit his head against the gate.

Then the mahout helped the girls escape. The injured was Ashwathi, a student of S N

Vidyabhavan Chenthrappini

. Later the forest department returned the elephant from the festival. Last week Guruvayur devaswom’s tusker Sreekrishnan was violent while taking it for the ‘Kootiyezhunallippu’ ceremony of annual festival at Kizhthani Temple and killed the first mahout Nandan, 42.

Heritage Animal task force secretary V K Venkidachalam said, “In January and February 18 elephants ran amok during the temple festivals in Thrissur district. Using elephants in musth was the reason behind this,” said Venkidachalam.

Thrissur ACF P M Prabhu said “We returned 19 injured elephants including the two that ran amok at temple parades.

As per the forest department record there were four elephants that ran amok in January and February”.

“The returned elephants reached the temple parades with fitness certificates from concerned veterinary surgeons. We assured rest and treatment to the all injured elephants,” said Prabhu.

“The forest department will assure to follow the monitoring committee direction in all temple parades. If anyone violates the direction we will take strict action against them,” he adds.