SC stays Kerala HC's restrictions on use of elephants in temple festivals

New Delhi/Kochi, Dec 19 The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the restrictions imposed by the Kerala High Court for the use of elephants in temple festivals.

The temple trusts of Thiruvambady and Paramekkavu Devaswoms had petitioned the Supreme Court challenging the restrictions imposed by the Kerala High Court on elephant management in Thrissur Pooram and the order staying the High Court directive came from the bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and N.K. Singh.

The bench orally remarked that the High Court's directions were "impractical" and asked how could it frame rules, substituting the rule-making authority.

Billed as the "mother of all festivals" in Kerala, the Thrissur Pooram was started by Sakthan Thampuran, the Maharaja of the erstwhile Kochi state, in the late 18th century.

The most keenly watched event of the Pooram festivities is the elephant parade -- of more than 50 jumbos, besides the firecracker displays, that starts in the afternoon and continues till the early hours of the next day.

Looking into all aspects, the Kerala High Court ordered that henceforth, festival organisers must submit applications with all the relevant details before the authorities concerned at least one month prior to the festival.

Further, the High Court also ordered that elephants must not be paraded on public roads between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. and they should not be transported between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. It also mandated that the elephants must get at least eight hours of rest during a continuous period of 24 hours.

The appeal, filed by the two temple bodies through advocate M.R. Abhilash in the apex court said that the "spatial restriction" mandating a minimum distance of 3 meters between elephants brings the historic festival to a grinding halt, as the thousand-year-old venue, theVadakkumnathan Temple, integral to Thrissur Pooram, cannot accommodate such constraints. "This venue, with its traditional layout, has been the epicentre of the Pooram for centuries and the direction by the Kerala High Court disregards the significance of the historic and UNESCO-recognised tradition," it added.