PETA India Offers Gift of Life-Like Mechanical Elephants to Bonalu and Muharram Organisers Over Animal Welfare Concerns & Public Health Risks

Out of concern for elephants and after a series of recent incidents in which upset captive elephants turned violent and lashed out killing and hurting people, PETA India has offered the organisers of upcoming Bonalu and Muharram events in Secunderbad and Hyderabad innovative lifelike mechanical elephants to use in place of real elephants.

PETA India has written letters to S. Venkata Rao, Director of Endowments Department of Telangana, which organises the Bonalu festival and to Azmet Jah, Chairman, HEH The Nizam’s Religious Trust; Mirza Riyaz-ul-Hasan Effendi, Member of Telangana Legislative Council and Syed Azmatullah Huseini, Chairman, Telangana State Waqf Board, who organise the  Muharram events offering a life-size mechanical elephant and pointed out that the use of a mechanical elephant will safeguard animal welfare and protect humans from potential harm by an upset elephant. PETA India also wrote to the Director of Project Elephant and the Chief Wildlife Wardens of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Delhi, urging them to safeguard elephants from unnecessary pain and suffering by denying any permission for transport and use of an elephant in these processions.

The letter highlights that in 2004, elephant Gajalakshmi who was used in the Muharram caused panic, endangered lives and it serves as a stark reminder of this fact. More recently, and Bibi-ka-Alam, had killed a temple priest, further underscoring the dangers of using live elephants. Last year, a partially blind elephant, Roopavathi, was brought from Karnataka and was paraded for hours while being controlled with an ankush, amidst thousands of people and loudspeakers’ music.

PETA India warns that elephants are wild animals who are unpredictable, especially amid large, noisy crowds and are known to lash out at things that upset them and eventually attack their mahouts and other humans. Mechanical elephants are increasingly being adopted in various temples and at religious events, providing a safe and awe-inspiring experience for all attendees. It has urged the organisers to reflect on the potential risks and suffering involved in using a live elephant.

In 2025, at least twenty captive elephants in Kerala used for 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.

PETA India ignited the sympathetic movement to replace the use of live elephants by religious institutions at the beginning of 2023. Now, at least seventeen mechanical elephants are used in temples across India. PETA India has donated ten to recognise temples’ decisions to never own or hire live elephants. Mechanical elephants are 3 meters tall and weigh 800 kilograms. They are made with rubber, fibre, metal, mesh, foam, and steel and run on five motors. A mechanical elephant looks, feels, and can be used like a real elephant. It can shake its head, move its ears and eyes, swish its tail, lift its trunk, and even spray water. They can be climbed upon, and a seat can be affixed on the back. They can be operated simply by plugging and playing with electricity. They can be taken through the streets and are mounted on a wheelbase, allowing them to be moved and pushed around for rituals and processions.