Please stop, in the name of God!

Prominent Hindu temples in India have an age old tradition of having a temple Elephant which carries around the Idol during important festivals. This has been a practice for centuries now, a practice that needs to be stopped. Time and again I keep seeing video footage about temple elephants running amock during festivities and end up killing people. Nobody cares why they do so, such gentle giants running amock suddenly. Everyone is just bothered about the people killed or injured, no one cares a damn about why the Elephant did that.

There are many reasons. Elephants are wild animals and are meant to be in the jungles. They are social creatures and unlike dogs they cannot just be separated from family just like that and humans cannot expect them to wag a tail in apppreciation. If you watch National geographic or animal planet shows about elephants, you'll be amazed how intelligent and social these elephants are. The festivities in Indian Temples are a nightmare for the Elephants. Swelling crowd and heat around them, long processions with no water and food and with mounted howdahs on their backs, the sound of drums and crackers all around them, simply irritates the animal. And the bloody humans expect the elephant to understand and stay calm. The howdah or the carriage mounted on the animal's back with the Diety on it is usually heavy and the Elephant is usually taken on a slow and long procession around the temple town. Imagine the plight of the creature. I recently read that for the Mysore Dasara fetstival, the elephants are decorated from the previous day evening it seems for the dasara day procession. It is a beast but are we too? Have a heart people. Its your god and not the Elephant's. The funniest part is that, people say that its a honour for such privilege to be bestowed on the Elephant. Gimme a break man, what does an Elephant know about honour.

Religion and the foolishness around it appeal to humans and not to animals like Elephants. They're better off without the bane of religion and its high time that the cruel practice of temple elephants being involved in temple processions be stopped. Like Human rights, animals do have their rights too and its high time we as humans stopped playing god. The irony here is, the god that the Elephant carries on its back with much pain has also been turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the Elephant's plight and prayers.