ALAPPUZHA: ‘Missing’ for a week, the mahout of troublesome tusker Evoor Kannan was brought back to Sree Krishna Swami temple at Evoor near Haripad on Friday, much to the relief of the elephant, the temple authorities as well as the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB).
Vinod, a native of Manakkadu in Thiruvananthapuram left for the capital for the Aattukal Pongala on February 24, allegedly without informing the temple authorities. After attempts to contact him failed, the authorities approached the Kareelakulangara police to locate him.
Residents said the 32-year-old elephant is extremely difficult to manage and has killed two mahouts earlier. It was shifted from the ‘anathara’ (a place where elephants are kept chained) and brought to the temple ground by Vinod on February 24 as the ‘anathara’ had to be cleaned, they said.
They alleged Vinod left without informing anybody. “He switched off his phone due to which TDB and temple authorities could not contact him. The elephant was forced to spend the past week standing out in the sun. Its hind legs were chained to a banyan tree and its front legs to a coconut tree, which limited its movement, even as the sun shone directly on it. Since people are afraid to approach it, the elephant could not be bathed or given food properly for the past week. None dared approach the violent jumbo lest it lead to more trouble,” said a resident.
V Vishnu, an elephant lover, said the elephant does not get easily familiar with mahouts. “It allows only one mahout at a time and sees other mahouts as rivals and tries to attack them. So none go near it,” Vishnu said.
Sarath, a native of Parippally, Kollam, was the elephant’s mahout until October last year and could manage it easily. He was later appointed the permanent mahout at Guruvayur temple following which Vinod was brought in last December. However, it is alleged he was reluctant to manage the jumbo due to its difficult and vigorous nature. As a result, the elephant had remained in the ‘anathara’ for months, said the residents.
Elephant lovers have been urging the TDB to reappoint Sarath as Kannan’s mahout as he managed it for several years and was able to generate good revenue through the jumbo during festival season.
The elephant had been donated to the temple by a devotee, a Haripad native, 15 years ago. It killed mahouts in March 2013 and April 2018 and also attacked many others over the years.