Kerala HC bans Elephant parade during Sabarimala Makaravilakku festival

As the clamour against elephant parades gets wider acceptance, the Kerala High Court has on Friday gave a verdict to stop using elephants in connection with Makaravilakku festival at Sabarimala temple. But there are no restrictions on parading elephants for the annual festival at the forest shrine. 

  The court order follows a report by Sabarimala special commissioner on the mishap in which a devotee was killed by a temple elephant at Sabarimala recently. 

A division bench comprising of acting Chief Justice Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Sivaraman considered the opinion of Sabarimala Tantris (chief priests) Kantararu Rajeevararu and Kantararu Mahesh Mohanaru on the matter. The chief priests had informed the court that elephants are not mandatory for traditional rituals of Makaravilakku festival. However, they differed on the question of using elephants in the annual festival.  So the division bench allowed parading an elephant for performing the rituals during the annual festival. 

Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), the autonomous body which manages the hilltop temple, opposed the views of Tantris and informed the court that current practice should be retained. 

At Sabarimala, a caparisoned elephant is used for carrying the idols during procession after the Makaravilakku festival. The court had earlier asked TDB to get the opinion of Sabarimala Tantris on parading tamed elephants during temple festivals.