Kerala High Court allows elephant parade

Thrissur: The Kerala  High Court has  allowed the parade of  elephant Thechikottukavu Ramachandran of Thechikkottukavu temple at  Peramagalm here in Thrissur and Ernakulam districts with the approval of the district captive elephant monitoring committee. A  High Court  bench consisting of  acting chief justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Anu Sivaraman issued the order on Thursday.    The 58-year-old pachyderm, which has a huge fan following across the state,  can be paraded with the nod from the committee that includes the district collector and a nominee of the Animal Welfare Board of India and after obtaining the fitness certificate of veterinary doctor.  

The exposure of the elephant to festivals should be in conformity with the Kerala Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules, 2012, the court said. The HC order was based on a  petition filed by pro-animal activist M.N. Jayachandran, who is the AWBI nominee in Kerala. The  Thechikkottukavu devaswom that owns the pachyderm had stated that the animal was apparently healthy and could be paraded. But  the petitioner raised apprehension citing that the  elephant was partially blind and had  killed 11 persons. He told DC that notwithstanding the ban by  the Ernakulam district committee,  the animal  was paraded at a temple near Chottanikara on Friday.   The police and forest officials remained mute spectators to the violation of the court order. The elephant was  hired out  for nearly Rs 3 lakh a day.