News Tamil Nadu

Dravidian Stockists Peddle PETA’s Narrative On Temple Elephant Lakshmi’s Death

December 1, 2022
The Commune

When the entire Tamil community in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry is mourning the tragic death of the Manakula Vinayagar Temple elephant Lakshmi, Dravidian Stockists and a few DMK supporters masquerading as journalists have blamed the Hindu temples for the elephant’s death, thus peddling the propaganda of PETA.

Temple Elephant ‘Lakshmi’ of the Manakula Vinayagar Temple collapsed and passed away on 30 November 2022, when she was out for her morning walk. She was only 30 years old and was much loved by the people of Puducherry.

Lakshmi was walking in a lane along with her mahout when she fainted on the road. Veterinary doctors were rushed in to provide medical help but she passed away soon reportedly of cardiac arrest. Hearing the news of Lakshmi’s demise, residents of Puducherry flocked to see their darling and have been paying tearful tributes.

Earlier in 2020, during the COVID pandemic, Lakshmi was forcibly removed from her home in Manakula Vinayagar Temple due to the alleged involvement of Menaka Gandhi and was kept in a pathetic condition at Krishi Vigyan Kendra. It was alleged that PETA was behind the move to remove Lakshmi from the temple. Indu Makkal Katchi (IMK) mobilized a campaign to rescue Lakshmi from PETA. Congress’s Americai V. Narayanan, BJP Puducherry’s Ganesan, and other members from various Hindu organizations protested the move to remove Lakshmi from the temple.

However, in the first week of August 2020, PETA petitioned the Madras High Court to quash the order issued by Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy ordering temple elephant Lakshmi to return to her home in Manakula Vinayagar Temple. Though the case was dismissed and Lakshmi stayed in Manakula Vinayagar temple, PETA and other organizations found other ways to target elephants in Hindu temples.

It was alleged by the elephant activists that Maneka Gandhi exerted pressure on the Forest Department to keep the elephant confined not even allowing her to go for a walk, as a result of which Lakshmi had water retention in the body and suffered a heart attack.

Locals also raised concerns about Vanjulavalli, a forest official who allegedly had ties to PETA, saying, “PETA tried to take control of Lakshmi during the pandemic. Due to the protest of the Puducherry people, She(Lakhsmi) was brought back to the temple. However, after the appointment of Vanjulavalli IFS, she did not allow Lakshmi to the temple.”

They questioned why Lakshmi, which should have been under the control of HR&CE, ended up under the control of Forest Department official Vanjulavalli, who treated Lakshmi with private doctors (Sha and his team) affiliated with PETA and WildlifeSOS.

Locals also alleged that the IFS Vanjulavalli has passed secret orders to not take Lakshmi for walking or to the temple and that she had used private doctors from Bangalore who gave her four injections per day, with 15 on the last day alone. They claimed that IFS Vanjulavalli was the sole cause of Lakshmi’s death, demanding an independent investigation into Vanjulavalli and urging the Puducherry government to conduct a postmortem by Mettupalayam doctors rather than the Bangalore doctors who treated Lakshmi.

PETA India, however, attempted to twist the reason for Lakshmi’s death, claiming that she was denied her liberty and happiness and forced to endure years of extreme and unbearable loneliness in the temple. PETA India said,” Over the yrs, PETA India advised that she be sent to a sanctuary to live unchained & in the company of other elephants. Short of that, PETA India also offered to help build a corral so that Lakshmi can roam unchained by the temple & enjoy other elephant company there.”

PETA attempted to downplay Lakshmi’s demise and blame it on Hindu temples, claiming,” The elephant had foot root disease. Elephants forced to live and work on concrete commonly suffer from this and other painful foot conditions. Approximately half of the captive elephant deaths are caused by such afflictions.”

In an exact reproduction of PETA’s statement, Dravidian Stockists and some DMK supporters posing as journalists have claimed that Lakshmi and other elephants died because they were brought from the wild to the temple.

Sai Lakshmikanth Bharathi, son of DMK Organization Secretary RS Bharathi, stated, “An elephant has a lifespan of 60-70 years. Lakshmi, the elephant from Puducherry’s Manakula Vinayagar temple, died today at the age of 32. Temple elephants have a shorter life span than wild elephants. No animal rights activists or environmentalists appear to be concerned about this.” He added that the mood of the elephants, which are supposed to be in the forest, is affected because they are tied up in temples, and that at least now, after the death of Lakshmi, elephant maintenance in temples should be banned by law.

Viduthalai Rajendran, general secretary of Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam, a rabid anti-Hindu hate speech organization, stated, “The death of a Puducherry temple elephant due to a heart attack is a tragedy not only for devotees but for everyone. Isn’t it cruel to bring animals that live naturally in the forest into a temple, make it religious, and then cause them to die of a heart attack?”

Another Dravidian Stockist, disguised as journalist Devendran Palanisamy, accused Hindu temples of Lakshmi’s death, saying, “If an elephant lives and dies in the forest, it is called natural death. If it is removed from the forest, brought into the city, tamed, and dies before its average lifespan, it is called murder.”

Another Dravidian Stockist, who blamed Brahmins for Lakshmi’s death, stated, “Lakshmi died as a result of a section of people (Brahmins) bringing animals that should be free to roam in the forest and locking them up in the temple for profit and use as begging animals. Elephant culture in the temple should be abolished.”

Not only Dravidian Stockists but also cadres of Seeman’s Naam Tamilar Katchi and neo-Ambedkarite group were also seen supporting the stance of PETA that elephants should not be kept in Hindu temples. A Naam Tamilar sympathizer said,” Only if the dying elephant is a temple elephant and not a wild elephant, it becomes a talking point. How long are we going to torture the elephants, which are wild creatures who should live naturally with their herds in the forest, by keeping them in separate enclosures in temples?”

A member of a neo-Ambedkarite group stated, “An elephant with five senses that is meant to roam freely in the wild is killed by a man with six senses.”

It should be noted that all of these Dravidian Stockists and Naam Tamilar symapathizers who complain about elephant torture in temples remain silent about cow slaughter in slaughterhouses and camel slaughter during Islamic festivals. They have taken the same stance as PETA by claiming that elephants are tortured in temples and hence the tradition of having elephants in temples should be stopped.

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