A temple in Kerala is all set to have an electronic elephant

Frequent instances of elephants running amok and increasing expenditure in hiring elephants for temple rituals have prompted the Irinjadappilli Sreekrishna temple near Irinjalakuda in Thrissur district to come up with the idea of e-elephant.

The nearly 11 foot-tall e-elephant made using metal, rubber sheets and motors will move its heads, ears and tail. Its trunk could also shower water. With wheels attached to its feet it could be moved by pulling. Up to four persons can sit on it.

The e-elephant has been named as Irinjadappilli Raman resembling Kerala's popular captive elephant Thechikottukavu Ramachandran. It already started drawing crowds.

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Rajkumar Namboothiri, who is the present owner of the family run temple, told DH that no tantrik books mentioned the need to use elephants for temple rituals. "Despite many instances of people getting killed by tuskers engaged in temple rituals, the practice is still being continued. Hence we decided to bring in a change," he said, adding that it could be for the first time that an e-elephant would be used by a temple for rituals.

The e-elephant costing around Rs 5 lakh was donated by some devotees as well as an animal welfare organisation. The elephant will be formally handed over to the temple on February 26 at a major event to be attended by many known astrologers and tantris.

Rajkumar said that the e-elephant would be mainly kept in the temple itself. It would be also given to any other temples that wish to use it. There are also plans to upgrade the e-elephant by making it move by its own and controlled by remote control in future, he said.

A group of local craftsmen who had earlier developed models of elephants for events abroad has developed the e-elephant.