As many as 79 elephants are being tortured by making the pachyderms stand in direct sunlight as part of the 36-hour-long festival, they said.
A team of six veterinarians, appointed by AWBI, were collectively prevented by officials of state Animal Husbandry and Forest Departments along with Thrissur district collector and police yesterday, V K Venkitachalam, secretary of Heritage Animal Task Force, a Thrissur-based animal rights forum, alleged.
In the letter, he said the Supreme Court had ordered the Kerala government to reconstitute the district level elephant monitoring committee chaired by the Collector by adding a new member nominated by AWBI for each district in Kerala.
The apex court had also reiterated that any elephant parade in each district must be approved by such a newly constituted district level elephant monitoring committee, the letter, which was released to the media, said.
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"But yesterday, with the tacit support of Thrissur district Collector, the veterinary doctors appointed by AWBI were prevented from inspecting the health conditions of the elephants," it said.
PETA India, another animal rights campaigner, also came out against the alleged act of not permitting AWBI experts to examine the health status of jumbos.
"The non-cooperation of the Kerala government shows that the only way to ensure the alleviation of suffering of captive elephants in the state is to ban their use, remove them from captivity and to send them to sanctuaries where they can live out their lives in peace unchained," PETA India Director of Veterinary Affairs Dr Manilal Valliyate said in a release.