PETA India offers mechanical elephants for Bonalu, Muharram in Hyderabad over safety & welfare concerns
Hyderabad: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has offered lifelike mechanical elephants to organisers of the upcoming Bonalu and Muharram processions in Secunderabad and Hyderabad. The move comes after several incidents where captive elephants turned violent, resulting in deaths and injuries.
PETA India has written to S. Venkata Rao, Director of the Telangana Endowments Department, which oversees Bonalu. It has also contacted Azmet Jah, Chairman of HEH The Nizam’s Religious Trust, Mirza Riyaz-ul-Hasan Effendi, Member of the Telangana Legislative Council, and Syed Azmatullah Huseini, Chairman of the Telangana State Waqf Board, who are involved in organising Muharram events. In its letters, PETA India offered to provide a life-size mechanical elephant, highlighting that the move would protect both people and animals.
The group also wrote to the Director of Project Elephant and the Chief Wildlife Wardens of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Delhi, asking them to deny permissions for transporting and using elephants in religious processions.
PETA cited past incidents as a warning. In 2004, an elephant named Gajalakshmi caused panic during a Muharram procession. More recently, an elephant named Madhuri, also known as Mahadevi, killed a temple priest during Bonalu. In 2024, a partially blind elephant named Roopavathi was paraded for hours amid loud music and large crowds while being controlled with an ankush.
According to PETA India, at least 20 captive elephants in Kerala turned aggressive in 2025, resulting in six deaths and several injuries. In 2024, at least 14 incidents were reported across India in which captive elephants harmed or killed handlers or others nearby.
PETA warned that elephants, as wild animals, are unpredictable and often react violently when stressed by noise and crowds. It said mechanical elephants offer a safer alternative and are already in use at religious events in several parts of India.
Since 2023, 17 mechanical elephants have been introduced in temples across the country, with PETA India donating 10 of them. These elephants are three metres tall and weigh around 800 kilograms. Made of rubber, fibre, metal, mesh, foam, and steel, they run on five motors. They can move their trunk, ears, eyes, and tail, spray water, and carry a seat for ceremonial use. Mounted on wheels, they are easy to operate with electricity and can be moved through streets during processions.
PETA India, whose motto includes the message that animals are not ours to use for entertainment, urged organisers to consider the risks and suffering involved in using live elephants and to opt for safer, ethical alternatives.
