Temple elephant

 ( Elephants In Indian Culture ) 

Temple elephants are a type of captive elephant that are kept in temples in Asian countries such as India and Sri Lanka.

Elephants generally play an important role in the Hinduism and Buddhism cultures of South Asia and Southeast Asia and are considered sacred. Temple elephants are usually wild animals, poached from wild herds at a young age and then sold into captivity to temples. Temple elephants usually take part in religious rituals or processions; believers also allow themselves to be blessed by them."The elephant is made to stand in the temple premises for work such as blessing devotees...". Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, CUPA/ANCF-Technical Report No 13. Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA) and Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (ANCF), Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 10 However, sometimes a temple owns elephants that are not all used for rituals.The Guruvayur temple in Kerala in 2009 owned 60 elephants. Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, CUPA/ANCF-Technical Report No 13. Compassion Unlimited Plus Action (CUPA) und Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (ANCF), Bangalore, Indien, 2009, p. 89In Kerala in general, about 7% of temple elephants were not used for labour in 2009. Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 98 At large religious festivals (e.g. in Thrissur Pooram), privately owned elephants which are considered particularly sacred due to special physical characteristics are also used. In the literature these are also referred to as temple or ceremonial elephants.

In the early 21st century, experts and conservationists strongly criticised the keeping of captive elephants in temples, as the living conditions are usually problematic and the elephants have little opportunity to fulfil their natural needs. Others claim that elephants form a vital part of the socio-economic framework of many temple ceremonies and festivals in India, particularly in South India.

The tradition of keeping temple elephants is ancient, but it is not known exactly when it began. Despite the religious associations, elephants are said to have originally been used primarily to transport water from the nearest river to the temple; they had to stand near the temple during certain 'auspicious hours', but lived freely in the forest near the temple the rest of the time. It is only later that other ritual functions are said to have developed. Some researchers suspect that were once also housed in temples between battles (Ghosh, 2005) - this mainly related to temples with a tradition of male elephants, such as in the Indian state of Kerala.Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 87

Temples and festivals in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and other states were determined to be involved in the illegal elephant trade. According to Suparna Baksi Ganguly, founder of the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre in Bangalore City, elephant babies or children are usually caught illegally in the northern forests of Assam, Bihar or Arunachal Pradesh and smuggled across several state borders to southern Indian states, utilizing corruption and bribes.Here after: Sangita Iyer: Gods in Shackles – What elephants can teach us about empathy, resilience and freedom, Hay House, Carlsbad (California)/New York/London/Sydney/New Delhi, 2022, p. 153-154 Only very rarely has an elephant been explicitly "rescued" in a temple;In 2009, out of 267 temple elephants observed in 112 temples, only one (in 1936) had been rescued. Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 6 conversely, maltreated elephants have to be rescued from temples more often.Sangita Iyer: Gods in Shackles – What elephants can teach us about empathy, resilience and freedom, Hay House, Carlsbad (California)/New York/London/Sydney/New Delhi, 2022, p. 156, and pp. 157-166 (Elephant Sundar) Gajraj FAQ and Updates, 14 June 2017, and In Memory of ‘Gajraj’, Our Beloved Elephant King, 15 July 2020, on the Website of Wildlife SOS (Retrieved on 15 March 2025)

Elephants that are already born in a temple are extremely rare, as many temple elephants are kept alone and in Social isolation. These elephants have little or no contact with the opposite sex, and the reproductive capacity of female elephants in captivity is greatly reduced, especially if they are not comfortable. Furthermore, male elephants in musth - an important requirement for mating - are usually isolated and strictly chained.In a study published in 2009, only 26 females out of 267 studied temple elephants had contact with bulls, but only 5 had a baby - it is not clear from the study what became of these five calves. Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 30–31, 46–47, 71–72, 99–100, 122–123, 141A rare exception is a girl elephant named Shivany born in Dharmasthala on 1 July 2020. See Youtube videos: 1) Baby elephant in Dharmasthala temple named as Shivani, in: Tv9 Kannada. Retrieved on 31 August 2020; 2) Dharmasthala Shivani || ಮುದ್ದು ಗಜರಾಣಿ ಶಿವಾನಿಗೆ ಇದೀಗ 3 ವರ್ಷದ ಹುಟ್ಟುಹಬ್ಬದ ಸಂಭ್ರಮ –ಕಹಳೆ ನ್ಯೂಸ್, in: Kahale News, 29 June 2023 (Retrieved on 14 July 2024) Furthermore, according to Richard C. Lair (1997) "Hindu temples ... have specific prohibitions against breeding".See in the chapter India, the section: Captive breeding, in: Richard C. Lair: Gone Astray - The Care and Management of the Asian Elephant in Domesticity. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Forestry Department, Rome, Italy and Forestry Department Group, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP). Printed by Dharmasarn Co., Ltd., Bangkok, 1997 (Retrieved on 23 July 2023) In 2009, there were no animals under 6 years of age among India's temple elephants, with most of them aged between 16 and 60 years old.

In the states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, mainly female temple elephants are found.In 2009, out of 32 observed temple elephants in Karnataka, only 5 were male, and in Tamil Nadu, out of 25 elephants, only one was male. Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 57 (Karnataka) and p. 134 (Tamil Nadu) In the age of social media, some of these elephants are particularly well-known or popular, such as in Tamil Nadu the temple elephants Andal (or Andaal) at the Srirangam (or Sri Ranganathaswamy) temple in Tiruchirappalli,There are currently (2024) two female elephants named Andal (or Andaal) and Lakshmi living there. See the YouTube videos: 1) Video with both elephants in ceremony, playing harmonica at the end, 2) Video with both elephants, 3) Video with both elephants, at the end in the swimming pool (Retrieved 22 June 2024). Akila at Jambukeshwara temple in TiruvanaikkavalSee: 6 videos on Youtube (Retrieved 15 July 2024) or Mangalam at the Kumbeswara (or Kumbeswarar Kovil) temple in KumbakonamSee the Youtube videos: 1) Portrait of Mangalam with Mahout on Indian TV, 2) Mangalam with Mahout in ceremony (Retrieved 22 June 2024) (2024).

In the southern Indian state of Kerala, traditionally male temple elephants are favoured, but they are more aggressive and can be dangerous, especially during intermittent musth periods."Nearly 50 % of observed elephants were reported to have killed/ injured handlers/ public, males were aggressive towards handlers while in musth: features that make this profession dangerous to both elephant and handler". Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 89 and 107 The Guruvayur Temple in the Thrissur district alone in 2009 had 54 bull elephants, plus 6 females,Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 89 in 2019, there were 45 bulls, of which only 13 were used for rituals, according to Sangita Iyer.According to Iyer, the temple demanded even more elephants in a petition to the prime minister. Sangita Iyer: The dark truth behind Guruvayur Elephants, Video on Youtube, 12 September 2019 (Retrieved on 22 June 2024)Natarajan speaks of a total of 50 elephants in 2020. Swaminathan Natarajan: The woman trying to save India’s tortured temple elephants, in: BBC, 7 September 2020 (Retrieved on 22 June 2024).

One of the duties of the temple elephants is to stand together with their mahout at a certain place in the temple, often near the entrance, to give blessing to the worshippers, which consists of briefly placing or tapping the trunk on their heads.See Youtube video: Temple elephant Andal at Srirangam Temple in Tiruchirappalli blesses Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and plays harmonica, in: Voice of America News, 20 January 2024 (accessed 22 June 2024). According to a 2010 study, temple elephants in Tamil Nadu spent on average about hoursThe time in the original text reads: „90% of the 5 hours/day time spent on daily rituals“. doing these blessings every day and have to stand the whole time (sometimes chained up).V. Vanitha, K. Thiyagesan und N. Baskaran: Daily routine of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in three management systems of Tamil Nadu, India and its implications for elephant welfare, Artikel in: Scientific Transactions in Environment and Technovation 2010, 3(3): S. 116-122, here: p. 118 und 120 According to Surendra Varma et al. (2009) individual elephants must give the blessing 800 to 2000 times on feast days.Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 9

There are also special religious festivals with glamorous elephant processions and parades, which attract many tourists - the elephant parades in Kerala are particularly famous.Swaminathan Natarajan: The woman trying to save India’s tortured temple elephants, in: BBC, 7 September 2020 (Retrieved on 22 June 2024). Elephants and their mahouts are also hired for the big temple festivals, which can cost up to around 10,000 dollars per elephant per festival. The Guruvayur temple mentioned above, for example, rents out its elephants and around 2019 charged 700,000 rupees (= approx. 11,600 dollars) per day for a "celebrity elephant".See 2.37-2.50 min in the following video. Sangita Iyer: The dark truth behind Guruvayur Elephants, Video on YouTube, 12 September 2019 (Retrieved on 22 June 2024)

Overall, the 2009 researchers came to the following conclusion: "Keeping of elephants in temples and ensuring their welfare therein seems to be an uphill task. It is in the interest of the elephants and of the general public that no new elephants be brought under the management of temples. It would be best to phase out temple elephants over a designated period of time“.Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, p. 13

Elephant conservation activist Sangita Iyer reached a wider audience with her 2016 award-winning documentary film Gods in Shackles, in which she exposes the brutal reality of temple and ceremonial elephants behind the glittering façade of religious festivals such as Thrissur Pooram. Biography of Sangita Iyer, on the website of: Voices for Asian elephants (English; accessed 22 June 2024). Gods in shackles: Plight of temple elephants, in: The Times of India, 20 July 2016 (accessed on 22 June 2024).YouTube video: Gods in Shackles Brand New Trailer, 5 November 2018 (accessed on 22 June 2024). Iyer, her organisation Voices for Asian elephants and various other animal welfare organisations around the world are campaigning against the common cruel practices. Often, temple elephants are taken from their mothers as babies and subjected to the procedure known as phajaan, in which they are tied up, beaten, or starved to make them docile.See sections Baby elephants are captured in the wild and „broken.“ and Here’s what goes into making an elephant „rideable“, in: Plight of Captive Elephants, on the Website of: Wildlife SOS (accessed 19 July 2024)See section: The Pajaan (sic!): breaking the elephants‘ souls, in: Traditions - Temple Elephants, on the website: Turismo responsable (Spanish and English; accessed 22 June 2024).The term breaking (including descriptions) instead of phajaan is used in: Claire Ellicott: Saving Anne the Elephant – the true story of the last British Circus Elephant, John Blake Publishing, London, 2016, p. 74–76Lair also uses the term breaking (often also rough breaking), but fails to provide a more precise definition (likewise for other specialised terms such as kheddah or mela-shikar), e.g. in the chapter on Myanmar, section: Capture methods and mortality, in: Richard C. Lair: Gone Astray - The Care and Management of the Asian Elephant in Domesticity. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Forestry Department, Rome, Italy and Forestry Department Group, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (RAP). Printed by Dharmasarn Co., Ltd., Bangkok, 1997 (accessed 23 July 2023)

If separation from the mother happens too early (and the baby survives), this has lifelong health consequences for the elephant, as elephant calves are dependent on their mother's milk for a very long time. Later, the elephants not only have to stand around for hours on hard concrete or stone floors - according to a 2010 study, temple elephants in Tamil Nadu had less than one hour of exercise a day and had to stand for about 70 per cent of their timeV. Vanitha, K. Thiyagesan, N. Baskaran: Daily routine of captive Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) in three management systems of Tamil Nadu, India and its implications for elephant welfare. Article in: Scientific Transactions in Environment and Technovation 2010, 3(3): p. 116–122, here: p. 120 and 121–, usually shackled with short chains and isolated from conspecifics, they are also beaten and threatened with sharp ankus. Many animals have problems with their feet and joints or other health problems and/or show stereotypical behaviour, such as rocking back and forth, which is typical of animals in captivity and indicates mental trauma.Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, among others on p. 66 (Karnataka), p. 106 (Kerala), p. 139 (Tamil Nadu)

In contrast to its negative origin, this stereotypical behaviour may be misinterpreted by Indian mahouts and followers of traditional elephant husbandry as “dancing" and as a sign that an elephant is happy.See 36,00 – 37,30 min, in: Gods in Shackles, documentary from Sangita Iyer, 2016. In particularly bad cases, elephants have also been put on chains with sharp hooks that dig into their flesh, and some animals have had their eyes pecked out by angry mahouts. During religious festivals, the animals, gifted with exceptionally fine hearing, also have to endure the clamour of huge crowds and the noise of firecrackers. Even elephants suffering from painful rheumatism, arthritis, bronchitis or other chronic diseases were rarely spared from participating in strenuous festivals. Despite legal regulations to the contrary, the owners had obviously corrupt or incompetent vets certify the alleged health and 'fitness’ of an elephant that was actually ill.Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 11 Around 2009, temple elephants in Kerala took part in 40 to 100 different programmes during the festival season and had to travel repeatedly to different locations within a radius of 35 to 150 km.Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, p. 98 As of 2019, the elephants of the Guruvayur temple were given a diet that was far too unbalanced, had no access to water in the sweltering heat and suffered from sometimes fatal diseases caused by poor hygiene, among other issues.See 3.19-5.30 min in the following video. Sangita Iyer: The dark truth behind Guruvayur Elephants, video on YouTube, 12 September 2019 (accessed 22 June 2024)

Male captive elephants are treated particularly harshly. Every year, during their three- to four-month long musth periods, they are constantly tied up in a confined space, unable to move. At the end of musth they are subjected to a traditional “ritual" called Katti Adikkal, where they are beaten continuously for 48 to 72 hours by a group of men in order to break their will again (similar to phajaan).Sangita Iyer: Gods in Shackles – What elephants can teach us about empathy, resilience and freedom, Hay House, Carlsbad (California)/New York/London/Sydney/New Delhi, 2022, p. 89–90According to Suparna Ganguly (among others). See 48,00 – 51,00 min, in: Gods in Shackles, documentary from Sangita Iyer, 2016.

The severe, traumatising stress on the animals is expressed not least in repeated news reports of elephants either suddenly and seemingly unexpectedly ‘going berserk’ and injuring or ‘killing’ their mahout or another human - probably often unintentionally - See the case of the female temple elephant Deivanai, which made the (Indian) press in November 2024. After the case of temple elephant Deivanai, animal welfare organisation PETA highlighted the elephant's inadequate and sad living conditions, as well as several other cases of temple elephants ‘on record’, and asked the Tamil Nadu Hindu Departments of Forest and Religious and Charitable Trusts to release the elephant to a sanctuary where she could live a less confined and happier life. There are also (temple) elephants that repeatedly attract attention through aggressive, but rarely unfounded, behaviour, such as a female temple elephant also named ‘Deivanai’, who killed a mahout in 2020, not for the first time. or sometimes trample people to death in the midst of crowds. A well-known case of the latter is the famous and highly revered bull elephant Thechikottukavu Ramachandran, who is considered the ‘largest Asian elephant in captivity’, who ‘Amok syndrome’ several times out of stress and killed both humans and conspecifics; Ramachandran himself is the victim of a mahout who at some point hacked one of his eyes blind.Vishnu Varma: Thechikottukavu Ramachandran is still in business: The story behind Kerala’s most loved (and feared) elephant, in: The Indian Express, 12 May 2019 (accessed 22 June 2024). Ramachandran for security reasons has already been banned by the government from the famous Thrissur Pooram temple festival, where he opened a temple gate during a traditional ceremony to the enthusiastic cries of an unleashed crowd.Youtube video: Thechikottukavu Ramachandran Mass Entry at Thrissur Pooram, 16 April 2016 (accessed 22 June 2024). However, due to massive protests from the festival organisers, elephant owners, fans and the Kerala Elephant Owners Federation, he had to be allowed back in. Kerala: The 'killer' Indian elephant who's loved and feared, in: BBC, 9 February 2023 (accessed 22 June 2024).

Possibly in response to the increasing protests about animal cruelty, so-called ‘rejuvenation camps’ were set up for temple elephants, which take place once a year for around six weeks.Youtube video: Elephant Rejuvenation Camp – Tamilnadu, India, 31 May 2016 (accessed 22 June 2024).Youtube video: India elephant 'rejuvenation camp' lets temple animals ‚relax‘ - BBC News, 9 March 2021 (accessed 22 June 2024). However, the elephants still have to stand around chained, and many have severe problems with their legs. Some also make stereotypical pendulum movements with their heads, which are considered a typical sign of mental trauma, due to the chronic lack of movement and standing still for long periods of time.Stereotypical behaviour of many temple elephants has of course already been recorded before, see above. Surendra Varma, S. R. Sujata, M.C. Sathyanarayana, E.K. Easwaran, T.S. Rajeev, Mahesh Agarwal, N. Mohanraj, Nilesh Bhanage: Captive Elephants of Temples of India - An Investigation into the Status, Management and Welfare Significance, ..., Bangalore, India, 2009, see among others: p. 66 (Karnataka), p. 106 (Kerala), p. 139 (Tamil Nadu)Chained temple elephants in a rejuvenation camp, some of which make stereotypical pendulum movements with their heads - a sign of mental trauma - can be seen in the following YouTube video: Thekkampatti Elephant Camp | Coimbatore Elephant Camp, 18 February 2021 (accessed 22 June 2024).Elephants with walking difficulties due to problems with their legs - some of which are nevertheless ridden by mahouts - can be seen in the following YouTube video: Thekkampatti Elephant camp#mettupalayam..., 24 February 2021 (accessed 22 June 2024).Youtube video: Female elephants Andal and Akila chained in the ‘Rejuvenation’ camp, 24 February 2021 (accessed 22 June 2024). In 2021, there was a scandal over a YouTube video showing two mahouts in a ‘rejuvenation camp’ abusing a female temple elephant from Assam with beatings. Temple Elephant beaten up in a rejuvenation camp in Tamil Nadu: Video goes viral | Oneindia News, 22 February 2021 (accessed 22 June 2024) A general news video on temple elephant suffering from December 2022 (also mentions beaten elephant in ‘rejuvenation’ camp)

To reduce the burden on existing domesticated elephants, robotics companies Four He-Art Creations and Aanamaker with PETA India and the group Voices for Asian Elephants began constructing imitative animatronic elephants. The first robotic elephant was donated to the Irinjadappilly Sree Krishna Temple in Thrissur, Kerala in 2023; 5 more robot elephants have been made for temples across the South India region since. news/roboter-elefant-tempel/ For less animal suffering: PETA India donates lifelike robotic elephants to temples, 8 March 2023 (accessed 15 July 2024)By November 2024, after a year and a half, at least 8 temples were said to have robot elephants.

Only a few selected male elephants are allowed to wear the tooth reliquary: they must be very sociable and traditionally have certain physical characteristics - they must be particularly large, have long impressive tusks, and 7 points of the body (the 4 legs, the trunk, the penis and the tail) must all touch the ground at the same time. Sri Lanka to hold state funeral for beloved sacred elephant Raja, in: 198 India News, 9 March 2022 (accessed 9 June 2024) The corresponding elephants are assigned to a particular caste, are considered particularly noble and receive great respect. In the 20th and early 21st century, these included Maligawa Raja (around 1913–1988; from 1953 to 1986), Heiyantuduwa Raja († 2002; from 1991 to 2000) and Nadungamuwa Raja (1953–2022; from 2006 to 2021).Youtube video: Heiyantuduwa Raja|හෙයියන්තුඩුවේ රාජා මතකාවර්ජනය විශේෂ විඩියෝ අංක 01, in: Elephant TV (official channel about the elephants of the Temple of the Tooth) Sri Dalada Maligawa in Kandy, 17 May 2024 (accessed 9 June 2024) After the death of Maligawa Raja in 1988, a national day of mourning was declared; later his body was stuffed and is on display in a special museum in the Temple of the Tooth. Nadungamuwa Raja was also stuffed in 2022 after a solemn state funeral following Buddhist rites on the orders of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.Sravasti Dasgupta: Sri Lanka’s most sacred elephant will be stuffed and put on display after dying aged 68, in: Independent, 8 March 2022 (accessed 9 June 2024) Heiyantuduwa Raja was not just a temple or ceremonial elephant, but was also hired out for some films, including Indiana Jones; his skeleton is in the Colombo National Museum.Priyanka Kurugala: Heiyanthuduwe Raja’s tusks, skeleton preserved, in: Daily News, 8 February 2013 (accessed 9 June 2024) Webarchive, 2009 (accessed 9 June 2024)

There have also been protests by animal rights activists against the abuse of Sri Lanka's temple elephants. In 2019, the case of the old female elephant Tikiri was reported in the press. Despite her alarmingly weakened and emaciated physical condition, which had been hidden by the glamorous full-body disguise, she had to participate in the Perahera in Kandy for the umpteenth time and for days on end and, according to a report by the Thai animal rights activist Lek Chailert, died just a few weeks later in September 2019.

In 2023, the case of a 29-year-old male temple elephant named Muthu Raja (‘Pearl King’ alias Sak Surin) made international headlines. Muthu Raja came to Sri Lanka in 2001 alongside two other elephants as a gift from the Thai royal family and lived there as a temple elephant in the Buddhist Kande Viharaya temple; he also took part in religious processions. Following allegations of neglect and abuse in the logging industry, the elephant - who suffered from several and a stiff leg from an untreated injury - was sent back to Thailand, where he was treated at the Thai Elephant Conservation Centre, Lampang. The case also led to diplomatic disgruntlement between the two countries.

Aashirvaad..JPG|Temple elephant in Tamil Nadu
File:Painted temple elephant - Kanchipuram.jpg|Painted temple elephant - [[Kanchipuram]], Tamil Nadu.
Bathtime at temple in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu.jpg|A mahout painting the forehead of his temple elephant, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu
File:Hampi, India, Temple elephant of Virupaksha Temple, Lakshmi.jpg|Temple elephant Lakshmi of Virupaksha Temple. [[Hampi]], [[Karnataka]].
Image:temple elephant 2.jpg|The temple elephant carries the idol of the Lord of Virupaksha. The procession goes around to receive the offerings from the devotees. Hampi, Karnataka.
An Elephant blesing devoties in the Big Temple.JPG|Temple elephant with devotees in the Brihadisvara Temple, [[Thanjavur]], Tamil Nadu
A western tourist is blessed by the temple elephant at Meenakshi temple in Madurai.jpg|Temple elephant blesses a tourist at [[Meenakshi Temple]], [[Madurai]], Tamil Nadu
Neyyadiyappar - Thirrupathur (10).jpg|Temple elephant in her enclosure, Neyyadiyappar Temple, [[Thirupathur]], Tamil Nadu
Iyaarappar koil thiruvaiyaaru P1010572.jpg|Temple elephant in her stable, [[Thiruvaiyaru]] [[Thanjavur]], Tamil Nadu
Thiruchenthur Teample Elephant.jpg|Chained temple elephant in its stable, Thiruchenthur Temple, Tamil Nadu
Guruvayur Temple elephant.JPG|Elephant of the [[Guruvayur Temple]] ([[Thrissur]], Kerala) in chains
Thrippunithura-Elephants5 crop.jpg|Elephant parade at the Sree Poornathrayeesa temple Festival in [[Thrippunithura]], Kerala, 2007
Image:Thrippunithura-Elephants2 crop.jpg|Caparisoned elephants during Sree Poornathrayesa temple festival.
Image:Thrippunithura-Elephants9 crop.jpg|Caparisoned elephants during Sree Poornathrayesa temple festival.
922 Thekkottirakkam By ManojK.JPG|Elephants at the ritual opening of the temple gate, [[Thrissur Pooram]] Festival, Kerala
Thrissur Pooram 2011 DSCN2997.JPG|Elephant parade at the festival in Thrissur Pooram, Kerala, 2011
Thrissur Pooram 2011 DSCN3084.JPG|Elephants at the fountain during a break at the festival of Thrissur Pooram, Kerala
Thiru Vazhappally Mahadevan - Name ceremony.jpg|The temple elephant Thiru Vazhappally Mahadevan during a temple ritual, Kerala
Maveli unnik.JPG|Unnikrishnan, the temple elephant of the Mavelikara Srikrishanswami temple, [[Kattuvalli]], Kerala