'Divine' elephant of Puducherry's Manakula Vinayagar temple dies; devotees shocked

Lakshmi came to the famous Manakula Vinayagar Temple in Puducherry when she was just ten years old. Since then, the 33-year-old female elephant has had an imposing presence in the temple which attracts thousands of tourists everyday from inside and outside the country.

On Wednesday, Lakshmi went for her routine morning walk near Kamakshi Amman Temple with two of its mahout. Halfway through the walk, the elephant collapsed on the road after hitting a stationary car, which was damaged.

Minutes later, the elephant was declared dead, leaving thousands of devotees of the temple in shock. The cause of the death is suspected to be cardiac arrest, but a clear picture will emerge only after the postmortem report is made available, government officials said.

Sakthivel, one of the mahouts, broke into tears as the lifeless tusker was brought inside the temple after it was declared dead. The elephant was taken to the temple premises from the place where it collapsed using a crane.

“It was always a beautiful scene to see Lakshmi walk with anklets on her legs. That is one of the specialties of Lakshmi,” a devotee who came to pay his last respects said.

Television footage showed the mahout crying profusely unable to control emotions even as a steady stream of mourners paid their last respects to Lakshmi, which ‘blessed’ them for about 24 years during temple hours in the mornings and evenings.

“The mahout had taken the elephant for a morning walk on Wednesday. But it collapsed mid-way and died. Preliminary probe has revealed that Lakshmi died of heart problems. This is a huge loss to the people of Puducherry who treated Lakshmi as their family member,” Puducherry PWD minister K Lakshminarayanan said.

The Manakula Vinayagar Temple, which is about 500 years old, is a key tourist attraction in Puducherry. The elephant was laid to rest in the evening.

Hundreds of people, who thronged the by-lane where the temple is located, couldn’t control their emotions and were seen crying. “How can we fathom this loss? Not just children, everyone who came to the temple would play with the tusker and get its blessing. We are sad and we can’t explain our sorrow in words,” a devotee said.

Sources said the elephant was unwell for some time but was allowed to go for morning walk by doctors who have been treating the tusker. The elephant was a regular at the 45-day rejuvenation camp organised for temple tuskers in Tamil Nadu. However, the camp was not held for the past two years due to Covid-19 lockdown.

Lt. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan said Lakshmi’s death has left the people of Puducherry shocked as they loved the elephant and accorded “divine” status to it.