Kottayam, Kerala, Feb 15: A temple elephant in the world famous Parthasarathy Temple in Aranmula turned violent after a procession on Tuesday and damaged several cars. A few passengers were injured.
Eyewitnesses said, the elephant turned violent after the culmination of the procession at the Parthasarathy Temple in Aranmula and began attacking cars.
The elephant damaged a building inside the temple premises Two mahouts attending to the elephant had a miraculous escape and the pachyderm was controlled after a tranquilizer shot .
The elephant, `Vishnu', is owned by a private party in Channanikkad, Kottayam district. It turned violent when the main mahout, was removing the caparison from its head after the procession .
The violent elephant then charged towards the devaswom building, partially demolishing it.
But for the timely intervention of the elephant squad, the animal would have turned against the near 500 strong crowd of devotees, including women and children, who were attending a ceremony inside the temple premises.
The violent elephant was given a tranquilizer shot and brought under control by the elephant squad.
The mahouts said, the elephant might have been exhausted due to loss of sleep during the past three days. Besides the continuous high decibel of sound and bright illumination could have affected the elephant.
Fireworks planned as part of the concluding ceremony in the morning was abandoned.
About Aranmula:
Aranmula, a beautiful and picturesque village, is about 9 km from Chengannur, The temple is situated on the left bank of the pampa river embosomed in the exuberant foliage of majestic trees.
Legend has it that the idol which is worshiped at Aranmula had originally been installed at Nilakkal, a few miles to the south of Sabarimala. The Pandava brothers after crowning Parikshit as emperor of Bharat left on a pilgrimage visiting various holy places. In keralaeach brother installed his own ishta devata on the banks of the pampa and nearby places and offered worship. Among them the one at Nilakkal was that of Vishnu installed and worshipped by Arjuna.
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