I recently made a visit to an elephant sanctuary, perhaps the only one of its kind in the world, here in Kerala. It is located in Trissur district near the famous Vishnu temple in ´Guruvayur´ and it houses nearly 63 elephants. The elephants of Kerala are an integral part of the daily life here. They are loved, revered, groomed and given a prestigious place in the state´s colorful culturespace. Unlike the elephants in the other parts of India and the rest of the world, here they are considered very beautiful and normally people buy these elephants looking at their ´lakshanam´ (qualities to be considered as good elephant), for example a good elephant should have a long trunk which almost touches the ground, the ideal elephant should be very tall etc. The elephants are also referred to
... read more
