Marvelous arrangement of colors, people, and decorated elephants make Kerala temple festival very attractive, but the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) reports suggest otherwise. Their report reveals that elephants with injuries were paraded and were forced to stand for hours in hot and humid climate without any protection by the organisers of temple festivals in Kerala, recently.

The organiser has violated the Supreme Court's directions which had stated all the organisers, owners of the elephants and the festival co-ordination committee to ensure that no elephant was engaged in the performance of any festival activities or meted out with cruelty.

Three separate reports, which dna has the access, mentioned that the elephants with abscesses, wounds, foot ailments, cataract, impaired vision of dermatitis were used during the festivals.

The reports were prepared by the AWBI after it carried out spot inspections in Mudappallur, Kannambra and Anjumoorthy of Palakkad district in May this year.

"If it is established before this court that an elephant has been meted out with cruelty, the organisers, the committee members and any one involved with it shall be impleaded in the case and be proceeded for contempt," a

Supreme Court bench had said while hearing a PIL filed by an NGO Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center highlighting the cruelty meted out to these animals.

The AWBI has alleged that the organisers of the vela (festival) did not even have the mandatory permission required from the Performing Animals (Registration) Rules, Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) and also Guidelines for Care and Management of Captive Elephants, issued by the environment and forest ministry.

According to the reports, which were filed before the apex court, the district animal husbandry office has given in writing to AWBI that no fitness certificates were issued by it for the elephants who were forced to participate in the festivals.

"Despite ban on ankush (sharp metal hooked weapons with spear tip point) by the wildlife department, majority of mahouts were found to be carrying it. They were also seen with iron rods to induce fear and restrict the elephants' movements.

"All the elephants were spotted tethered with short chains and all four legs were chained in such a way so that they can't take even single step forward or backward….," as stated in the report adding that no minimum standards of health assessment to evaluate the existing physical and mental problems of the elephants were done by the forest department.