Thrissur, 21-February-2025 –As Kerala reels from a string of horrifying elephant-related tragedies, Voices for Asian Elephants (VFAE) is stepping up with an urgent, revolutionary solution. The organization, committed to ending elephant captivity and safeguarding endangered Asian elephants, has announced the launch of Shiva Shakthi—a life-sized robotic elephant—at Chakkamparambu Sree Bhagavathi Temple near Mala, Thrissur. This bold initiative aims to transform temple traditions, offering an ethical and cruelty-free alternative while preserving India’s rich cultural heritage. This launch follows a successful pilot project at Sree Sankaran Kovil, a Malayali temple on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border, where VFAE introduced Tamil Nadu’s first robotic elephant.
“Science has proven that elephants are highly intelligent, social creatures who belong in the wild with their families—not in captivity where they suffer unimaginable torment,” said Sangita Iyer, Founding Executive Director of Voices for Asian Elephants and award-winning filmmaker of the UN-nominated documentary Gods in Shackles, which exposed the brutal exploitation of festival elephants. “Robotic elephants provide a groundbreaking alternative that allows us to honor sacred traditions without perpetuating unimaginable cruelty. Ahimsa—non-violence—is deeply woven into our culture, and it is our moral responsibility to uphold it.”
Temple authorities are embracing this change. “With their lifelike appearance, robotic elephants ensure that traditions thrive without causing pain and suffering to sentient beings. More temples are realizing that live elephants pose ethical concerns and serious safety risks. We are grateful to Voices for Asian Elephants for generously sponsoring Shiva Shakthi and look forward to welcoming our own life-sized robotic elephant,” said C.D. Sreenath, President of Vijnanadayini Sabha, the public trust managing the temple.
The urgency of this initiative cannot be overstated. In just the first two months of 2025, six people have lost their lives due to captive elephant-related incidents. Most recently, on February 13th, a temple festival in Koyilandi, Calicut district, turned into a nightmare when two elephants, spooked by fireworks, deprivation, exhaustion, and relentless abuse, attacked each other. The resulting chaos left three people dead and around 50 injured. Earlier in the month, a captive elephant at a festival in Elavalli, Thrissur, gored two people, including his mahout, who later died. In a desperate bid for freedom, the elephant ran 14 kilometers before being recaptured.
The numbers paint a grim picture. In 2024 alone, 24 captive elephants in Kerala perished due to neglect, brutal mistreatment, and fatal diseases such as foot rot and severe digestive disorders. Over the past six years, a staggering 154 captive elephants have died in Kerala. Mahouts, too, suffer, facing dangerous and often deadly encounters with stressed, enslaved elephants pushed beyond their limits.
Beyond temple traditions, VFAE is making a tangible impact on wild elephant conservation. The organization recently donated a 4.00-acre private plantation to the Kerala Forest Department, securing a vital corridor for approximately 340 wild elephants in South Nilambur. Their efforts have also prevented over 1,139 train-elephant collisions in West Bengal between January 2023 and November 2024, thanks to the implementation of the cutting-edge AI-based EleSense technology. The organization has also planted 50,300 elephant-friendly saplings across the Pallahara and Balasore ranges of Odisha, employing around 200 tribal individuals and creating eight large waterholes to support elephant populations.