Kerala temples switch to lifelike robotic elephants from real ones

Temples in Kerala have started replacing real elephants with their cruelty-free mechanical replicas that look quite lifelike.

“It is a wild animal, it likes to live in jungles,” CG Prakash, a former official at the popular Chakkamparambu Bagavathy temple, told The Hindu. Prakash was instrumental in bringing a robot elephant to the temple.

According to media reports, six lives have been lost in 2025 so far, with nine lives being taken by captive elephants in 2024. Prakash said, “We are capturing it [an elephant] and torturing it. It's totally unethical.”

Features of the robot elephant

The mechanical elephants flap their ears, squirt water from a waving trunk and are a life-sized replica of the endangered Asian elephants, often used in Kerala temples during festivals.

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The replicas are made of fibreglass and rubber, with a wheeled metal frame that is strong enough to hold a rider. It is but one of dozens of models, campaigned for by animal rights activists, as an alternative to keeping elephants in captivity.

Elephants are used especially during Hindu temple ceremonies, and sometimes weddings, where they are paraded through packed crowds with flashing lights, thumping drums and very loud music.

The mechanical elephant was donated by the Voice for Asian Elephants Society, which said it would help promote "cruelty-free temple traditions". More such replicas have been donated to Kerala temples by other organisations, including Action For Elephants UK, sitarist Anoushka Shankar, and PETA India.

Risks faced by captive elephants

PETA India says more than 2,700 captive elephants in the country regularly face severe psychological and physical stress. Despite being migratory herd animals, they are chained alone for hours every day.

PETA’s funding of over a dozen mechanical elephants since 2023 has been done on the condition that temples move their captive real elephants to approved wildlife sanctuaries.

PETA’s Khushboo Gupta said, “Mechanical elephants help retain age-old traditions in a modern way. They help ensure real elephants can remain with their families in their natural jungle habitats.”

Also read: Deaths caused by elephants in temples prompts PETA to offer mechanical jumbos

A relieving alternative

Gupta was quoted by media reports as saying, “This initiative honours ahimsa, or non-violence, a tenet of Hinduism."

For some worshippers, the calm mechanical models are relieving. A teacher, Jayasree Sivaraman Narayaneeya, said, “When it is a live elephant, there's a fear within us. What if it runs amok? But since it's a robotic elephant, we feel much safer.”

Also read: Kerala Brahmin group supports replacing elephants with chariots in temple processions

More realistic models upcoming

The makers of the mechanical elephant model say a luxury version, costing over $5,500 (Rs 4.37 lakh), will be complete with electric motors that power rolling eyes, a nodding head and a swishing tail.

Much like the real thing, the models are draped with golden headdresses and decked in flower garlands.

Professional model maker, Prasanth Prakasan (42), told The Hindu he and his three friends started making these elephant models as an art project, but were pleased to see how they help protect real animals.

"What we are doing is saving elephants, and we are happy about it," he told the newspaper.

Currently, the team has made nearly 50 such elephants — with a production line at the workshop building several more, according to The Hindu report.