PETA India Erects Billboard Near Janata Bhawan in Guwahati Reminding Assam Chief Minister Abused Elephant Joymala Still Needs Help
Appealing for the rescue of elephant Joymala — a 22-year-old female elephant from Assam who is in the illegal custody of a temple in Tamil Nadu where she is called Jeymalyatha —PETA India has erected a billboard in Guwahati near Janata Bhawan, designed to remind Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and the public that Joymala remains chained and lonely under the illegal custody of the Arulmigu Nachiyar (Andal) Temple in Srivilliputhur, Virudhunagar district, Tamil Nadu. PETA India urges that Joymala be sent to a sanctuary where she can live unchained, without weapons and in the company of other elephants.
Since 2021, the media have reported on numerous instances in which Joymala was severely beaten by different mahouts, leading Assam to demand her return. A 2022 inspection at the Krishnan Kovil temple, where Joymala is kept, revealed that the cruelty to the elephant is so routine that her mahout used pliers to painfully twist her skin to control her, even in front of PETA India inspectors.
The billboard in Guwahati is located opposite the Federal Bank, Christian Basti, Guwahati, Assam, 781005.
In March 2025, after reviewing videos and other documentation about her plight, over 50 veterinarians from different parts of the country signed an opinion, which was sent to various concerned authorities in Assam and Tamil Nadu by PETA India.
The Assam government had moved the Gauhati High Court in September 2022 to get Joymala released, as she was only temporarily leased out from Assam to the Tamil Nadu temple in 2011 and has been under the temple’s custody even after the lapse of the lease period. Following an application filed by PETA India urging that the decision regarding Joymala’s custody be made with her best interests in mind, the Gauhati High Court allowed PETA India to intervene in this case. The case is scheduled to be heard by the Gauhati High Courton 30th July.
PETA India has also cautioned that Joymala’s misery would make her extremely unpredictable, putting her mahouts and devotees’ lives at risk. Frustrated elephants attacking their mahouts, devotees, tourists, or others around them is common. In 2025, at least twenty captive elephants in Kerala had become upset and killed six people on different occasions, injuring several others, or damaged property. It is also pertinent to note that in 2024, at least fourteen incidents across India in which captive elephants harmed or killed their mahouts or others around them were reported. And recently, elephants ran amok during the Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad.
PETA India advocates for all venues and events currently using elephants to switch to lifelike mechanical elephants or other means in place of real elephants and had offered to gift the Arulmigu Nachiyar (Andal) Temple a mechanical elephant if they allowed Joymala to be rescued.
Last month, actor Trisha Krishnan and the Chennai-based NGO People for Cattle in India (PFCI) donated a life-size mechanical elephant named Gaja to the Sri Ashtalinga Athisesha Selva Vinayagar and Sri Ashtabhuja Athisesha Varahi Amman temples in Aruppukottai. This initiative marked the first instance in the Madurai region – and the entire Virudhunagar district – where a temple has embraced a mechanical elephant for religious ceremonies.
Today, at least eighteen mechanical elephants are used in temples across south India, of which PETA India was involved with donating around ten in recognition of the temples’ decisions to never own or hire live elephants. These mechanical elephants are now used to conduct ceremonies at their temples in a safe and cruelty-free manner, helping real elephants stay with their families in the jungle.
Help Rescue Abused Elephant Joymala
