KOCHI: The mahouts and the tuskers in Kerala are overdone and are deprived of sleep for months due to festival season and the demand for elephants is at an all-time high. According to state records, there are 443 registered elephants. Of these, only 350 are eligible for temple processions. There are 3330 shrines in the state where up to 128 elephants are used for processions. Due to high demand, bookings are made by paying the asking amount.

A normal elephant should be paid up to Rs 50,000 per day. The tuskers with name and reputation will get an amount in the range of Rs 1.5 to 3 lakhs. Rent for and mahout fees are extra. The temple authorities line up in front of elephant owners and others to book the animal. Chemboothara Kodungalloorkkavu Bhagavathy Temple in Thrissur is allowed to bring 128 elephants for the temple event.

A big part of the festival cost has to be set aside for elephants. The expense for elephants at the festival in Ernakulam Shiva Temple is about Rs 60 lakh. The elephant owners are trying to milk the situation by demanding exorbitant fees and using the elephants without proper rest. Last day, visuals of a famous elephant falling during a temple procession went viral.

Not only Hindu temples, but also a few Muslim and Christian worship centres bring elephants for procession. Palakkad has 773 temples where there ate processions using elephants. Thrissur is second with 703. Kasaragod has the least - three. Thrissur district has the highest number of elephants - 114. Guruvayur temple has 42 elephants. Guruvayur Indrasen was auctioned for Rs 2,72,727 for a procession for a day.

At the same time, the number of native elephants is decreasing. 78 elephants died in five years and another two in January and February of 2022.

Star elephants

Pampady Rajan, Guruvayur Indrasen, Erattupetta Ayyappan, Ernakulam Shivakumar, Thrikkadavur Sivaraju, Thechikottukavu Ramachandran, Chirakkal Kalidasan, Mangalamkunn Ayyappan, Sharan Ayyappan are few of the popular elephants.

Elephants

Tuskers... 337

Female elephants.............. 89

Makhnaa........... 17

Total........ 443

Owners

Forest Department................................... 36

Devaswom Boards............. 75

Private Devaswoms................ 41

Individuals................................... 282

Circus................................... 09