Forest Dept. to relax norms on parading elephants at festivals

With the Thrissur Pooram approaching, the Forest Department has relaxed its regulations for the use of firecrackers within a 50metre radius of captive elephants during the festivals. The move follows criticism by temple committees and elephant owners against a circular issued by the Chief Wildlife Warden on the maintenance of captive elephants chosen for parades.

While the government has already apprised the Kerala High Court of the rules, it is likely to file an affidavit on Monday to emphasise the need to relax the contentious norm, official sources said.

Various groups, including the Kerala Elephant Owners Federation, Kerala Festival Coordination Committee and Ana Thozhilali Union (Elephant Workers’ Union), have threatened to abstain from parading elephants at festivals, alleging the rules were impractical. They stressed the need for voluntary groups to attend to exigencies and overcome the dearth of squads deployed by the department.

CITIES

SO

Poor

NO

CO

Moderate

PM2.5

PM10

CODE

Good (Readings indicate average AQI)

SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Shortterm exposure can harm the respiratory system, making breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air particles to form haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues and monuments.

NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters.

CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to critical organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause dizziness, confusion, unconsciousness and even death.

PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced lung function, irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease