Post#20 elephants and no-Mowgli humans

Thrissur might not be the coolest place in India, not even in South-India. However, apart from the flying-cockroaches and bloody mosquitos, I am surrounded by so many cool animals, like chameleons, goats and elephants!

I’ve always wanted to be around elephants, I believe they are particularly kind and smart creatures. I don’t think it is only by chance that South-India chose them as their most sacred animals (because elephants are not even locals here, they come from other Asian countries).

Kerala has a lot of them because most of the Hindu temples have their own elephants and also some rich families. Even if they are sacred creatures and I admire the indian amazing traditions, I feel bad for all the things they are exposed to, especially at festivals.

This time, I went to the grounds of the Guruvayur Devaswom, a temple that takes care of 64 elephants. It was nice to see them without all the religious decorations. A lot of them were really enjoying their Sunday bath, just laying down with their eyes closed, totally relaxed.

I was curious about having the silent conversation with them. They say elephants never forget you. One of the Mahouts (elephant’s trainer and care taker) told me that the she-elephant wanted to give me a blessing. Probably it was the same pigeon-trick they use in touristic cathedrals, but I was really confident that only good things could come from believing in the elephant’s blessing. Also, I hope they felt how much I would love to hug them and tell them, in the name of the Homo sapiens, how sorry I am for not leaving them in peace, in the wild, near the big clean rivers so they have lots of fun swimming

Probably 62 of the 64 elephants are males, she-elephants are not bought or donated to the temple because they cannot participate in the festivals. Great for the ladies, because they have more chances of remaining in the wild, without any men bugging them. Besides, the she-elephants live in large groups while the he-elephants are loners, so they have less psychological trouble living in captivity.