Royal treatment for elephants

They need special care during the rainy season

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It’s the most wonderful time of the year for elephants. For a month, more than a hundred elephants belonging to various temples will be pampered with nutritious food and invigorating medicine.

Like humans, elephants too need special care during the rainy month of Karkkidakom. After a month of royal treatment, they process out strong and shining, just in time for a picture-postcard Onam celebration.

The elephants are given a special mix of rice and wheat, cooked with ghee, jaggery and Ayurveda medicines. This is apart from the regular ration of palm leaves. The diet varies for each elephant depending on its size. The opening of an annual camp in Punnathur Kotta, where the elephants attached to Guruvayoor Devaswom are housed, has turned to be a tourist-puller.

The devaswom has earmarked Rs 7,40,000 for the rejuvenation treatment of its 64 elephants. A team of vets and trainers give them mineral mixtures and Ayurveda medicines. They are not pushed for any job during this period. They are kept cool so that the effects of musth are under control.