Thrissur: The forest department has asked the Guruvayur Devaswom Managing Committee (GDMC) to conduct the annual jumbo race at the Lord Sree Krishna Temple in Guruvayur only after 3.30 p.m. as per the guidelines for parading the captive elephants in the state.
Top GDMC officials said that in the meeting held on Wednesday to discuss the preparations for the race to be held on February 17, the forest officials, who attended the meeting, mentioned about the need for changing the usual timings.
Usually the race begins at 3 p.m. and before that the pachyderms of the GD line up at Manjulal, nearly 400 metres from the eastern entrance tower of the temple.
"We have asked them to conduct the race only after 3.30 p.m. as per the rule put in place and if the GDMC did not follow the timings, we will have to take action," assistant conservator of forest (social forestry) in Thrissur Jaya Madhavan said.
As per the Kerala Captive Elephants (Management and Maintenance) Rules 2012, the elephants should be paraded from 6 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 4 p.m to 8 p.m. for the ritual of 'para' procession. The district-level elephant protection committees follow this for parading elephants for festivals and events, M.N. Jayachandran, an official who is part of such a committee in Thrissur, said.
However, the general secretary of pro-animal organization, Heritage Animal Task Force based in Thrissur, V.K. Venkitachalam said that as there was a petition which was being heard by the Supreme Court for banning the jumbo race, the forest department had come up with such a change in the timings. The SC would soon issue a judgment in the case.
