It is not just Sabarimala. Women – humans or animals – showing their head in temple spaces, traditionally reserved for the males of the species, are not welcome to bring about change. A popular female elephant – Lakkidi Indira – was dressed up as a male and paraded under the name, Kollamkodu Keshavan, at the Thootha Pooram, which marks the end of an annual festival held at the Sree Thootha Bhagavathy Temple in Palakkad.
This was against the tradition, and not received well. The temple central committee and the trustee board has asked the group that paraded Lakkidi Indira as male for the elephant procession to not take part in the important functions of the festival next year, as punishment.
Confirming that a female elephant was paraded as male, Ramakrishnan, the temple clerk tells TNM, “This was because they could not find the required number of male elephants needed for the procession. There were supposed to be 15 male elephants in all. But they – a group belonging to ‘A’ category and there are two such categories – were an elephant short, since most of them were taken to other temple festivals, including the Thrissur Pooram. It is not their fault either, it is the contractor’s. But we had to take action since it was a violation of tradition.”
Reports suggested that fake tusks were installed on Indira to pass her off as male. There was, of course, a lot of reaction, not just for breaking tradition but also for animal protection.
Sangita Iyer, biologist, journalist and filmmaker, wrote on her Facebook, “Just unbelievable!! Can you believe that the festival mafias installed fake tusks into a cow elephant because they didn’t have enough elephants? How much would this have hurt the poor elephant!! This clearly shows, these festival mafias will go to any extreme without considering the suffering of elephants.”
There was a lot of debate recently regarding the inclusion of Thechikkottukavu Ramachandran, a 54-year-old elephant, blind in one eye, at the Thrissur Pooram. When Thrissur Collector TV Anupama was reluctant to let the elephant be taken out, risking so many lives, including its own, the elephant owners association did not take it well. After a lot of discussions, the elephant was finally paraded with several conditions to make it a safe journey.
Sangita and other animal activists had been against the parading of the unwell elephant.
She writes, “As we all saw in the recent unfolding, even this courageous CWW (Chief Wildlife Warden) who put his life on the line couldn’t halt the parading of one blind elephant. There’s a serious lack of political will. It was the best chance for the Thrissur Collector to reject. But they kept saying, the medical tests were conducted by reliable vets. Seriously?? He’s BLIND in his right eye and has a growing cataract in his left. Also, regardless of the physical medical report, they simply don’t understand that their psychological well-being is equally important. Elephants will NEVER lose their wild instincts. They will attack when least expected. We’re fighting against one of the most powerful mafias - if not THE most (sic).”
Other animal welfare groups, too, expressed their shock at disguising Lakkidi as a tusker. “They continue to kill them, yet learn absolutely nothing from it,” wrote People 4 Pachyderms, a group that works towards creating awareness on the plight of elephants.