Elephant parading at Kerala festivals hangs in balance as high court tightens rules

Thiruvananthapuram: With the Kerala High Court tightening its stand on the fresh regulations on parading elephants for festivals, the major festival authorities are in a dilemma especially as the temple festival season of Kerala has begun.

The high court on Thursday also reiterated its stand on implementing the freshly prescribed distance norms for parading elephants and even questioned the beliefs involved in parading more number of elephants for temple festivals.

If the fresh norms that stipulate a minimum of three metre between each elephant, the number of elephants being paraded for major festivals like Thrissur pooram will have to be considerably reduced.

"While 30 elephants are now being paraded for Thrissur pooram, with the new regulation only 10 would be possible," said elephant rights activist Venkitachalam V K.

It is with commercial motives that many temples are trying to parade maximum number of elephants by giving scant regard to safety norms, he criticised.

Other key regulations brought in by the Kerala High Court are that elephants should not be exhibited continuously for more than three hours and elephants should not be paraded through public roads between 9 am and 5 pm. The HC also prescribed mandatory eight hours rest after every 24 hours and also imposed regulations on transporting elephants.

Meanwhile, the festival authorities are pinning hopes that the government would try to bring in legislation to overcome this situation.

Paramekkavu devaswom secretary G Rajesh said that if the fresh regulations were enforced, no temple festivals could be performed in the manner it has been conducted so far. The only solution to overcome the situation is for the government to bring in legislation.