Jumbo troubles pile up for Guruvayur Devaswom

THRISSUR: Thrissur-based NGO Heritage Animal Task Force (HATF) has sent a petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Central Animal Welfare Board (AWB) seeking action against Punnathoor Kotta, the elephant care centre of Guruvayur Devaswom (GD).

The petition highlights the plight of the elephant ‘Elite’ Narayanankutty in musth with chains on all four legs for the past one year. It says no step is taken to remove the waste heap in the shelter accumulated over three weeks.

The GD authorities have no convincing reply to offer and its chairman T.V. Chandramohan says they could not intervene.

“I am not in a position to answer now. I will react later,” he told DC, adding several elephants in musth are chained here.

Asked about the GD’s decision two years ago to establish a waste treatment plant here in association with an Alappuzha-based company, he said it could not be materialised.

“Several companies come to us like that, but they are not sincere in their intentions,” he said.

HATF secretary V.K. Venkitachalam said in his petition that the contractor failed to remove the waste. but the GD did not act.

He pointed out that an assistant director general in the Union ministry of environment and forests had sought an immediate report from the state chief wildlife warden on July 13 on the steps taken to end the cruelty towards these animals.

However, the authorities did not taking any steps to end their misery. Conditions like the one against using JCB for waste removal was what was causing the problem, he alleged.