The Kerala government has lifted the ban on parading the state’s most dangerous tusker. Thechikottukavu Ramachandran, now 55 years old, will be paraded twice a week in Thrissur and Palakkad for temple festivals.
Owned by the Thechikottukavu Devaswom, the tusker has killed 13 humans and 3 elephants in its lifetime. It is almost entirely blind and has been banned from being paraded over six times by the Kerala High Court.
In March 2020, following massive protests by lakhs of Ramachandran’s fans, the Thrissur District Collector issued an order allowing the tusker to be paraded amid tight security at the Thrissur Pooram. However, with the pandemic setting in, all temple festivals stood cancelled in 2020.
This year, Ramachandran has been allowed to be paraded in temple festivals in Thrissur and Palakkad districts. The conditions issued by the district administrations include having four mahouts next to the elephant at all times. No person apart from the mahouts is to be allowed within 5 metres of the animal. An elephant squad should be ready at all times.
Further, if the elephant runs amok all damages incurred will have to be borne by the Thechikottukavu Devaswom.
The last time Ramachandran was paraded was in Guruvayoor in 2019, at a temple in Kottappadi. On hearing the sound of fireworks go off, the blind elephant got scared and ran. In the process, it ended up stamping two persons to death.
Following this, the elephant was once again banned from being paraded in March 2019.
Prior to this, Ramachandran had killed 11 people and three elephants, including Thiruvambadi Chandrasekharan, another hugely popular elephant that carried the Thiruvambadi Sri Krishna idol.
Soon after the 2019 ban, Ramachandran’s fans across the state launched a campaign named ‘Save Raman’, prompting then Thrissur Collector TV Anupama to lift the ban on parading the tusker.