Puducherry people were overcome with sadness on November 30 as the Manakula Vinayagar temple elephant Lakshmi suddenly lost consciousness and died on the spot during her morning walk to the shock of her caretaker and onlookers. The tusker, a rare one as she was a female, was a darling to everyone who visited the temple and thousands poured in to pay her last respects with teary eyes. As Lakshmi was laid to rest, her fans and those who looked after her allege that it was the animal rights FCRA NGO lobby that caused her sudden demise.

Lakshmi was brought to the temple as a calf after her herd abandoned her. She had been undernourished and too weak to follow the herd. She was brought to Manakkula Vinayagar temple in Puducherry when she was a 5-year-old calf and was pampered like a child till the moment of her demise. Soon she became the star of the temple and the surrounding area, especially to kids. So much so that when she was taken away, people protested both online and on the ground to bring her back and they achieved it too.

PETA has long been meddling in Hindu traditions in the name of animal rights and it had a special interest in temple elephants. Not caring what a domesticated animal would face in the jungle, vested interests tried to ‘rescue’ her and ‘free’ her into the wild. PETA has been targeting Lakshmi since 2014, when it complained to the Chief Wildlife Warden(CWW) that the elephant was not being cared for properly.

The forest department had issued a notice to the temple and ordered the elephant to be moved to a ‘safer’ space. She was forcibly taken to the Krishi Vigyan Kendra in Kurumbapet on June 4, 2020, where she couldn’t adapt to the surroundings, and her health deteriorated. Mahouts, who accompanied her said that she didn’t even sleep and kept standing for more than 30 days. Due to public outrage, every party, irrespective of ideology, came together to get back Lakshmi, and the then Congress Chief Minister Narayanasami passed an order to bring her back on July 16, 2020.

The video of her coming back to her abode in the temple went viral on social media as she trumpeted many times, happy to be back in familiar company and surroundings. But PETA didn’t give up and challenged the order passed by the CM in the Madras High Court. The matter is still subjudice, but fortunately, the court passed an interim order in favour of the temple directing it to ensure sufficient nutrition, free movement, and periodical medical treatment for the elephant.

PETA had other means to get to Lakshmi though, as it had sufficient political and bureaucratic connections, Maneka Gandhi, for example. Maneka Gandhi, PeTA and Animal Welfare Board of India(AWBI) had written to Kiran Bedi, the then governor of Puducherry, requesting her to remove Lakshmi from the temple alleging violations of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. As per animal activists who defended Lakshmi’s presence in the temple, PeTA got to the elephant through Vanjulavalli, an IFS officer. She was on the team that looked after Lakshmi in Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

An animal rights activist and the founder of the Indian Centre for Animal Rights Education(INCARE) also says that Vanjulavalli interfered in the treatment offered to Lakshmi at the behest of PETA. He says that the elephant was barred from walking against its norm of taking a walk every morning, which caused water retention and resulted in her death.

Those who were with Lakshmi in her last days say she was given so many injections, 4 per day and a whopping 15 on the day before she died. Many have taken the name of Vanjulavalli and accuse her of resorting to hand twisting techniques in stopping the regular doctor from Puducherry, and insisting upon a doctor from Bengaluru instead. Together they stopped Lakshmi’s movement altogether for the past one month, it is said.

Fraught with distress, Lakshmi’s fans demand justice through post mortem conducted by government veterinary doctors, possibly from other states, to rule out cover-up or sabotage to find out the real cause of her death.