 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this articlebyadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Temple elephant" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Temple elephants are a type of captive elephant. Many major temples own elephants; others hire or are donated elephants during the festive seasons. Temple elephants are usually wild animals, poached from the forests of North East India from wild herds at a young age and then sold into captivity to temples. Their treatment in captivity has been the subject of controversy and condemnation by some,[1] while others claim that elephants form a vital part of the socio-economic framework of many temple ceremonies and festivals in India, particularly in the South.
The largest elephant stable in India is Punnathurkotta of the temple of Guruvayur; it has about 59 captive elephants; it currently houses 58 captive elephants, of which 53 are adult males and 5 are females.
|
| |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General |
| ||||||
| Human use |
| ||||||
| Culture and history |
| ||||||
| Related |
| ||||||
