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.

The reason behind the sudden heart attack suffered by Laxmi was not clear. Twitter users started raising questions about her health condition and treatments. Several people have alleged that in the last few days, the elephant was being treated by a PETA veterinarian instead of a regular veterinarian. It is also alleged that Laxmi was given unknown injections. Many people also pointed out that due to the pressure of so-called animal rights activists Laxmi was kept confined and she was not allowed regular walks and other necessary physical exercises. This led to the deterioration of her health, people are alleging.

Indu Makkal Katchi tweeted, “Lakshmi was given 15 injections yesterday, says Ashok Rajan an animal activist. What were those injections, why was the regular doctor denied to treat her, and a PETA doc from Bangalore had to treat her?”

Temple activists and elephant activists have alleged foul play in the death of Lakshmi. S. Muralidharan, of Redefining Animal Welfare suspects sabotage by Indian Forest Service officer Vanjulavalli Sridhar and BJP’s Maneka Gandhi.

“On whose direction did she confine the elephant in the shed without walking & conduct a postmortem”, Muralidharan asked.

He alleged that Lakshmi was forcefully taken away from the Manakula Vinayagar Temple by Maneka Gandhi during the pandemic.

“We brought Lakshmi back with the help of then Puducherry Chief Minister Narayanasamy, Congress leader Americai Narayanan and Indu Makkal Katchi. But after that, Maneka exerted pressure on the Forest Department to keep the elephant confined not even allowing her to go for a walk. Because of that, she (Lakshmi) had water retention in her body due to which she suffered a heart attack and died today morning.”, the elephant activist said adding that Maneka Gandhi and the BJP government is responsible for the mess.

Temple activist Rangarajan Narasimhan has also raised suspicion over the death of Lakshmi.

Earlier, Lakshmi was displaced from her home in Manakula Vinayagar Temple by taking her away reportedly in an unethical and illegal manner. She was kept at Krishi Vigyan Kendra in a pathetic condition. 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.  They had sought the intervention of Puducherry Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy to bring back Lakshmi home. Following this, Lakshmi was brought back to the Puducherry Manakkula Vinayagar Temple from the Kamaraj Agricultural Science Center in Kurumbapet.

References:

thecommunemag.com