Elephants to get old-age home in Kerala

Zee Media Bureau/R Nandini

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government is planning to set up an old-age home for aged elephants in the state.

Elephants are a vital part of Kerala's culture and age old traditions, therefore it becomes imperative to provide them with shelter and care as they age.

The Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), that manages a large number of temples in southern Kerala, will set up the geriatric care centre.

Some elephants are subjected to torture and made to work endlessly at transporting wood logs in the forest areas. These elephants when grow old, are treated even badly with no medical care provided to them.

The temple jumbos who are constantly under supervision of temple authority too needs professional medical treatment with age.

All these jumbos would be given special care and treatment under trained mahouts and veterinarians, once shifted to the geriatric care centre.

A meeting convened by the TDB and attended by veterinarians and dewaswom officials took a final decision in this regard recently.

A top TDB official said the geriatric care centre would be set up either in Thiruvananthapuram or in a suitable location in central Kerala.

"The geriatric care centre is planned to be set up in Thiruvananthapuram or in central Kerala. We are planning to shift aged jumbos, kept at TDB temples, to the new centre. They will be given scientific care and upkeep there," Devaswom Commissioner P Venugopal.

The centre had been planned in view of the increasing number of aged jumbos and their plight reported from many temples, managed by the board, TDB officials said.

The board has also decided to prepare dossiers for all elephants kept by various temples coming under the TDB.

The famous Sabarimala Ayyappa Temple, Aranmula Parthasarathy Temple and Eattumanur Mahadeva Temple are among over 1,200 temples managed by the TDB.

(With PTI inputs)