Indian temple uses lifelike robotic elephant for rituals

The Star

A temple in southern India on Saturday (June 22) introduced a lifelike robotic elephant to be used in rituals in an effort to prevent animal cruelty.  The mechanical elephant was donated by the animal rights group PETA to the Pournamikavu Temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.  The three-metre-tall, 800 kg mechanical elephant, called Baladhasan, can move its ears and tail.  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00A temple in southern India on Saturday introduced a lifelike robotic elephant to be used in

00:08rituals in an effort to prevent animal cruelty.

00:12The mechanical elephant was donated by the animal rights group PETA to the Purnamikavu

00:17temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.

00:21The three-metre-tall, 800 kilograms mechanical elephant, called Baladasan, can move its ears

00:27and tail.

00:29It was given in recognition of the temple's decision never to own or hire live elephants,

00:35and will be used to conduct ceremonies at the temple in a safe and cruelty-free manner.

00:42We know elephants are widely used in Kerala for religious and other purposes.

00:48And at the same time, it is so common that the elephants run among cases are also reported

00:53every year in Kerala.

00:55As per the Heritage Task Force reports, in the last 15 years, 526 people were killed

01:01by the elephants used in Purnam and other religious purposes.

01:06So to rectify all this, we introduced this mechanical elephant that is the third mechanical

01:11elephant in Kerala.

01:13Kerala's laws make it mandatory for elephants to have at least 12 hours of rest after parading

01:19for five hours, and five hours of rest after travelling.

01:23But elephants often suffer in captivity due to harsh training and poor living conditions.

01:29There have been cases in the past when elephants used for temple ceremonies ran amok, damaging

01:35properties and injuring or killing people.

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