Ramachandran gets nod for Pooram cameo

Thrissur: The district collector on Saturday gave the nod for the parading of the ‘star’ elephant Thechiko- ttukavu Ramachandran for carrying Thidambu (replica of the deity) of Naithalakkavu Amma and to pull open the Eastern Entrance Tower of the Vadakkumnathan Temple which hosts the Thrissur Pooram.

On Sunday morning, the elephant will be taken to the ‘Sreemoolastanam’ of the Vadakkumnathan Temple on a truck, and after alighting, the Thidambu of the deity brought from Naithala- kkavu Temple in Kuttoor on another elephant will be shifted atop Ramacha- ndran at 9.30 am.

The elephant which is the tallest in the state will then enter the temple through the main western entrance tower and bow before the Vadakkumnathan. It will then move towards the southern entrance to push open its massive doors. The door opening ceremony is the one that heralds the Thrissur Pooram.

By 10.30 am, the elephant has to wind up ‘special outing’ and step on to the truck. As decided by the District Captive Elephant Monitoring Committee (DCEMC) chaired by collector T. V. Anupama on Friday, a team of three vets did the health and fitness check-up of Ramachandran and found the elephant was fit for one-hour parading.

Ms Anupama who received the health report said in her order allowing the parading that a barricade leaving a 10-metre free space needs to be set up around the elephant which has killed 13 people and three elephants on festival grounds since 1986. It also should have four mahouts around it.

Dissenting note by AWBI member

Animal Welfare Board Member M. N. Jayachandran who is a part of DCEMC wrote a dissenting note in the meeting held on the pooram site at Thekkinkad Maidanam on Friday that gave the nod for parading the elephant if found fit in the health check.

“Along with the legal advice forwarded to the collector by the state government, agriculture minister V. S. Sunil Kumar had also sent a letter to the committee which says that there is also a tourism aspect to Pooram and events associated with it,” Mr Jayachandran said.

"After the elephant killed two persons at a private event at Kottappadi in Guruvayur in February, the forest department had set up an expert committee of five members which had come up with a report that due to complete blindness on its right eye the animal was very suspicious of its surroundings and had run amok even in the presence of four mahouts."

“There was no direction from any court asking the DCEMC to review its earlier decision to ban the elephant from public events and the legal advice taken by the state government, and the letter of the minister was an attempt to put pressure on the committee. The elephant has been opening the doors only during the past five years of the 220-year old pooram.”