THRISSUR : At a time when fans are working hard to make Thrissur Pooram and other major festivals a memorable experience for participants, it seems the authorities are hell bent on dampening the festival spirit by enforcing impractical rules. If one sticks to the rule that the crowd has to be at a distance of 8m from the elephant parade, it would lead to difficult situations in the conduct of festivals.
While the ultimate objective of all stringent rules is welfare of animals, it seems the rules are too harsh to the extent of putting an end to age-old festivals in the state. According to Rajesh G, secretary of Paramekkavu devaswom, “It is totally impossible to conduct Thrissur Pooram adhering to the new set of rules. We urged the central and state government to intervene in the matter so that the next pooram can be organised without any issues.”
Thiruvambady devaswom secretary Girishkumar K also sought support of central and state governments in resolving the present situation. The devaswoms are planning to initiate necessary action to take the matter to the court so that the ground-level situation could be presented before the judges who issued the order. He added that as organisers of Thrissur Pooram they would move a review petition against the recent verdict.
‘Samasrishti’ formed
Animal rights organisations in the state have joined hands to form a new outfit named Samasrishti-Federation of Animal Rights Organization of Kerala to fight for the protection of animal rights. The organisations include SPCA Idukki, Heritage Animal Task Force, People For Animals Thiruvananthapuram, PAWS Thrissur, PAW Kannur, SEW Kannur, WEFAA Thrissur and ARROW Pathanamthitta.
“Samasrishti has been formed as the legal battle and awareness programmes that the organisations conduct separately seem to be insufficient to achieve necessary results,” said the office-bearers of the new organisation including M N Jayachandran, Sushama Prabu, and Preethi Srivalsan.