00:00A temple in southern India on Saturday introduced a lifelike robotic elephant to be used in
00:08rituals in an effort to prevent animal cruelty.
00:12The mechanical elephant was donated by the animal rights group PETA to the Purnamikavu
00:17temple in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
00:21The three-metre-tall, 800 kilograms mechanical elephant, called Baladasan, can move its ears
00:27and tail.
00:29It was given in recognition of the temple's decision never to own or hire live elephants,
00:35and will be used to conduct ceremonies at the temple in a safe and cruelty-free manner.
00:42We know elephants are widely used in Kerala for religious and other purposes.
00:48And at the same time, it is so common that the elephants run among cases are also reported
00:53every year in Kerala.
00:55As per the Heritage Task Force reports, in the last 15 years, 526 people were killed
01:01by the elephants used in Purnam and other religious purposes.
01:06So to rectify all this, we introduced this mechanical elephant that is the third mechanical
01:11elephant in Kerala.
01:13Kerala's laws make it mandatory for elephants to have at least 12 hours of rest after parading
01:19for five hours, and five hours of rest after travelling.
01:23But elephants often suffer in captivity due to harsh training and poor living conditions.
01:29There have been cases in the past when elephants used for temple ceremonies ran amok, damaging
01:35properties and injuring or killing people.
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