Model behavior: India's anti-cruelty robot elephants March 3, 2025
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Mar 2
- 3 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Model behavior: India's anti-cruelty robot elephants
Thrissur (India) (AFP) - It flaps its ears and squirts water from an undulating trunk, but this elephant is a life-size mechanical replica, launched to replace the endangered animals in India's Hindu temples.
Made of fiberglass and rubber, and riding on a wheeled metal frame strong enough to hold a rider, the model is one of dozens that animal rights activists are touting as an alternative to keeping elephants in captivity in India.
Elephants are used in many Hindu temple ceremonies, parading through packed crowds with flashing lights, drums, and blaring music.
Deadly attacks by panicked pachyderms are common.
“It's a wild animal that likes to live in the jungles,” said C.G. Prakash, 68, a former employee of the popular Chakkamparambu Bhagavathy temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
“We are capturing them and torturing them. This is unethical.”
Prakash was instrumental in bringing the robot elephant to the temple.
He was donated by the Voice for Asian Elephants Society, which said he would help with the temple's “cruelty-free traditions”.
'Stay with your families'
Activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in India claim that the more than 2,700 elephants in captivity in the country often face “severe physical and psychological stress”.
Despite being herd animals, they are usually kept alone and chained up for most of the day.
PETA has funded more than a dozen models since 2023, donated on the condition that temples transfer their elephants to approved sanctuaries.
“Mechanical elephants help maintain age-old traditions in a modern way,” said PETA's Khushboo Gupta.
“They help ensure that real elephants can remain with their families in their natural habitats in the wild.”
Like real elephants, the models are covered in a golden headdress and adorned with flower garlands.
Model makers say that a deluxe version - complete with electric motors that drive a bobbing head, rolling eyes and a realistically swaying tail - can cost more than $5,500.
Professional model maker Prasanth Prakasan, 42, said that he and three friends started making elephant models as an art project, but are pleased that they are now helping to protect real animals.
“What we're doing is saving elephants, and we're happy about that,” he said.
The team has already made around 50 of these elephants, with a production line in the workshop building several more.
For those wishing to have an elephant at their wedding, the models can be rented without the complicated licenses required for an expensive real elephant, he pointed out.
'Exploited'
Accidents involving frightened elephants running over crowds are common and some temples that are switching to models claim the safety of their faithful.
In February alone, PETA recorded incidents in Kerala involving nine captive elephants that lost control and five people died.
In one case, an elephant at a festival was startled by fireworks, struck its companion with a tusk, and triggered a stampede that killed three people and injured dozens.
“Those who take care of them, many don't follow the rules,” said V.K. Venkitachalam, 60, of the rights group Heritage Animal Task Force.
Animal welfare is also gaining more and more attention.
In November, the Kerala High Court issued guidelines for the best treatment of elephants in captivity.
“Their use is often justified based on tradition and religious practice,” the court wrote.
However, “the animals are being commercially exploited without any care or concern for their welfare,” the court said.
The guidelines were later suspended by the Supreme Court, which said that the guidelines were not practical.
'Non-violence'
There are fewer than 50,000 Asian elephants in the wild, according to the World Wildlife Fund, mostly in India, with others in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.
The species is in danger of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
As elephant habitats shrink, conflicts between humans and wild elephants increase - 629 people were killed by elephants across India in 2023-2024, according to parliamentary data.
In the same period, 121 elephants were killed - the vast majority by powerful electric fences, as well as by poaching, poisoning, and being hit by trains.
For animal rights activists, model elephants are a safe solution that fits in with religious principles.
“This initiative honors ahimsa, or non-violence, a principle of Hinduism,” PETA's Gupta told AFP.
For some of the faithful, the calm models are a relief.
“When it comes to a live elephant, there is a fear among us. What if it gets out of control?” said 58-year-old teacher Jayasree Sivaraman Narayaneeya.
“As it's a robotic elephant, we feel much safer.”
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