Actor Richa Chadha donates mechanical elephant to Kasaragod temple, to unveil it on Tuesday

Kasaragod: Actor Richa Chadha will travel to Kasaragod on Tuesday to unveil a life-size 800-kg mechanical elephant - named ‘Gurupuram Arjunan’ - at Sree Mahavishnu Temple in Gurupuram near Kanhangad, adding to Kerala’s growing shift towards cruelty-free alternatives to live elephants in temple rituals. Chadha and temple tantri Irival Krishnadas Vazhunnavar will jointly perform the dedication at 10 am.

The initiative is being supported by Chadha and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India.
The decision to bring a mechanical elephant to Gurupuram came after the temple's tantri saw a similar model during a visit to a temple in Karnataka, according to temple executive committee member Jayaram Chandran.

“When our tantri visited a temple in Karnataka recently, he saw a mechanised elephant being used for rituals. When he enquired with the temple committee, they told him that it had been donated by PETA. He then got in touch with PETA,” Chandran said.

PETA volunteers visited the Gurupuram temple two months ago and agreed to support the initiative. "PETA brought Chadha on board as the sponsor," he said.

“We don't use elephants for our rituals mostly because we don't get them. With this, we can use the elephant for our festival and also rent it out to neighbouring temples,” Chandran said.

The temple's move comes amid a wider shift in Kerala towards replacing captive elephants with mechanical replicas during rituals and festivals. The idea seeks to preserve the visual and ceremonial elements associated with elephants while removing the need to keep or bring live animals into crowded and often noisy festival environments.

For animal-welfare groups, the change is also about reducing the risks faced by elephants subjected to captivity, prolonged confinement, loud percussion, fireworks and large crowds.