The fate of an elephant named Thiruvambadi Ramabadhran hangs in the balance. His trunk is paralyzed. Unable to eat or drink he stands helplessly, as his handlers are engaged in their own chats.

Ramabadhran's trunk is paralyzedPhoto Credit: Still shot Gods in Shackles documentary To make matters worse, he has contracted infectious foot and skin diseases, and has been placed in solitary confinement. He is shackled day and night, forced to stand on his own urine and excrement, his foot rot worsening by the day and pus continuing to ooze from his body wounds.

Thiruvambady Ramabadhran is suffering foot rot and infectious diseasesPhoto Credit: Mr. Venkitachalam According to one of my sources in Trissur, Ramabadhran has 11 wounds around his legs and 15 deep wounds all over his body, one of them spilling "buckets of pus." Surely, this intelligent animal must also be psychologically distressed by the physical and emotional pain.

A massive tumor on Ramabadhran's left hip is oozing out pussPhoto Credit: Mr. Venkitachalam Ramabadhran belongs to Thiruvambady Devaswom, a renowned temple in Trissur, Kerala. This temple owns five more elephants including a female called Lakshmi. She used to perform regular rituals. However, for almost a month now, she has been "on leave" according to one source. As it turns out, Lakshmi is being forced to stand in one spot, shackled to a concrete pole day and night. She's not even allowed to lie on the ground. Why? Because the temple officials "suspect" she's pregnant. And they don't want to take any chances. So they're depriving Lakshmi of her basic routine that allowed her at least some exercise, as she walked to the temple and around the shrine during her morning and evening rituals. In an email exchange with me, Mr. Venkitachalam, Heritage Animal Task Force (HATF) secretary said he's livid, adding, "The most disturbing matter is that the mahout and the managers of Elephant Lakshmi are not allowing it to bend its knees or lie on the ground. i.e., this Elephant is forced to stand always on its four legs."

This is Lakshmi in November 2015, getting ready for temple ritualsPhoto Credit: Still shot from Gods in Shackles documentary Even for an elephant that's not pregnant, standing in one spot is torturous. Walking is absolutely essential, so they can shift their massive bodies and balance the weight. If in fact Lakshmi is pregnant, she must be going through hell, as the extra weight of the baby must be burdensome on her legs, causing excruciating pain. After receiving complaints from animal activists, the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) directed top veterinarians of Kerala to conduct a spot check last week on all elephants owned by the Thiruvambadi temple. The report is expected to be released sometime this month. According to one of my sources none of the veterinarians could confirm Lakshmi's pregnancy. He said, the only thing fueling speculations is a video filmed by a business man eight months ago that depicts one of his male elephants mounting Lakshmi several times during his annual musth cycle (when bull elephants are in heat). It is in this man's mansion that Lakshmi remains shackled day and night. The core issue is, most of the elephants in Kerala are bulls. And Mr. Venkitachalam is mainly concerned that the state veterinarians have little knowledge and expertise in diagnosing pregnancies. Therefore, he has written an open letter to the State and Forest Ministers of Kerala, asking them to have experts from other states to intervene, "We expect that your authoritative office will constitute a high level expert committee of veterinarians from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka who are well versed in diagnosing the pregnancy of captive Elephants of Forest Department of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka states." Back in November 2015 when I visited Lakshmi, her previous mahout, who was fired from the temple for torturing her to blindness, told me that she was pregnant. He also said that three years back when they tried to mate her with the same bull elephant she ran away. So this time around, they chained her next to him, literally forcing her to mate.