- BY tictac
- POSTED IN Blog
- WITH 0 COMMENTS
- PERMALINK
- STANDARD POST TYPE
Guwahati: Rupsingh and Rani are among four elephants from Assam set to undergo a perilous journey to Ahmedabad for the annual Rath Yatra festival at the Jagannath temple on July 4.
Animal rights activists have criticised a plan by the Assam state government to send four elephants on a perilous train journey of more than 3,100km (1,926 miles) to participate in a temple ritual. They say the long journey could be dangerous for the animals and may even kill them.
No date is set for their departure yet, but they are expected to reach Ahmedabad before 4 July to participate in the annual Rath Yatra in the Jagannath temple. The train journey is expected to take 3 to 4 days.
But activists and conservationists say the plan to move the elephants is “cruel and completely inhuman”, especially since temperatures are more than 40C (104F) in many places along the northern Indian route these elephants are expected to take.
Most of north-western India is reeling under a heatwave. There have been reports of people dying from heat during train journeys. The elephants can suffer from heatstroke, from shock, and even die.
Elephants – both wild and captive – are a protected species in India and there are strict guidelines for their transportation.
Gujarat doesn’t need these elephants,” “Wildlife laws prevent [the] display and exhibition of elephants. Laws ban performances by elephants in circuses, zoos are not allowed to exhibit them, so why should temples be allowed to use them in rituals or processions? Don’t elephants have rights?
“We worship Ganesha, the Elephant God. Why are the Gods then being put through such cruelty by a temple?”
PC- Gujarat headline
The elephants at the Jagannath temple would be decorated and paraded at the Rath Yatra that coincides with the famed annual Rath Yatra in Puri.
According to traditions, the elephants have the first glimpse of Jagannath, his brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra, and lead the procession through different parts of the city covering a distance of about 14km.