Bargavi Rajagopal

[Keeper of the Green @keeperofdgreen]

The 2024 Transfer Rules mandate verifying provenance & welfare.
Did the High-Powered Committee clear Durga?

@CTR_Nirmalkumar @CMOTamilnadu
@RameshOffcl

#WhyTheChains #NoElephantsInTemples #StopElephantCaptivity

[Kanyaa Kaushik @KanyaaKaushik]

Five elephants. Five ownership histories. Five microchip records.
If everything is in order, why not simply publish and independently verify the complete records?
Ownership Certificates, DNA, parentage, microchips and transfer history should tell the same story.
#VerifyTheFive

[Signe Sol @SigneSol0]

What is being done to these young elephants — and to so many others kept in captivity for temples and festivals — is brutal. Taking animals still in their childhood or early youth, moving them thousands of kilometres, placing them into a system built on chains, isolation, and methods that deliberately break their will, all while calling it tradition or donation, is abysmal. The gap between the public image of majestic, sacred animals and the lived reality of fear, pain, and truncated lives is grotesque.
These are highly intelligent, emotionally complex, deeply social beings. Forcing them into this existence is not neutral. It is a choice that prioritises spectacle, status, and money over their fundamental needs.

[Kanyaa Kaushik @KanyaaKaushik]

There is something deeply uncomfortable about knowing where an elephant is today while still having unanswered questions about how it entered captivity.
#NoElephantsInTemples #whythechains #verifythefive #SaveAssamElephants #SaveAnimals

[Dilthi Gujarati @dilthi_gujarati]

Animals Don't exist for human's entertainment in any form

Stop captivity of elephants in Tamilnadu & entire India

@AmitShah who made laws that allows captivity of this innocent giants?

@narendramodi
Why you're not raising your voice against Captivity of elephants

@actorvijay
You made so many movie's where you've shown that how to fight for the right cause. Are you in support of animal captivity? If no than speak up

@CTR_Nirmalkumar @CMOTamilnadu
@RameshOffcl

#WhyTheChains #NoElephantsInTemples #StopElephantCaptivity

[Bargavi Rajagopal @Bargavi_R]

@pricatttt @CMOTamilnadu @CTR_Nirmalkumar @RameshOffcl

Stop Animal slavery now!! The World is watching! Please save them. Reunite them with their mothers. Free then in the wild!

#WhyTheChains #NoElephantsInTemples #StopElephantCaptivity #VerifyTheFive

[Priyanshi @pricatttt]

@dilthi_gujarati @CMOTamilnadu Nothing can justify this 6 year old baby and other 4 young elephants to spend their entire life in chains being tortured for the powerful to earn money!
#WhyTheChains
#NoElephantsInTemples
https://t.co/rMQuYNP8s6

[Priyanshi @pricatttt]

ANOTHER BABY REACHED THE TEMPLE 💔
This time a 6 year old Shiva!!!! Look at the chains holding him, him being dragged by both ears, him being intimidated by those sticks💔
His eyes show how freaking terrified he is! He also misses his mom! Stop this brutality. God will also cry!!

[Kanyaa Kaushik @KanyaaKaushik]

Current reporting describes different accounts of how the five elephants changed hands, including a Tamil Nadu report describing Rupsing as purchased.

Publish the original documents. Let the record answer.
#verifythefive

[Priyanshi @pricatttt1]

We need to speak for Durga, Hiralal, Rupsing, Shiva and Bijuli!! Just few days back, these babies were living a normal life with their herd until some powerful people decided to trade them for money in the name of FAITH💔
#WhyTheChains #NoElephantsInTemples #StopElephantCaptivity

[Priyanshi @pricatttt1]

#WhyTheChains #NoElephantsInTemples #StopElephantCaptivity
DON'T DO THIS CRUELTY IN OUR NAME💔

[People For Cattle In India (PFCI) @PFCII]

CONFINING THEM IN CHAINS IS NOT DEVOTION. IT’S CRUELTY.

Look into their eyes.Durga. Shiva. Just babies.

They deserve freedom, dignity and their mothers, not a lifetime in chains, isolation and fear.

@CMOTamilnadu @CTR_Nirmalkumar @RameshOffcl

Please save them. Reunite them with their mothers.

#WhyTheChains #NoElephantsInTemples #StopElephantCaptivity

[Chez_Em @Chez_Em]

The heartless shame of #India @rashtrapatibhvn Using a bloody robot instead of these babies

[Seeking equilibrium @KhurshidRasul]

@pricatttt @RameshOffcl @CMOTamilnadu The owners listed are suspect!! They have been transferred illegally from the wild and this needs to be investigated!! Durga was residing in Manas Sanctuary and was lovingly called Bhonti meaning sister!! The Assam Forest department sold their sister! Shame! 😭

[Signe Sol @SigneSol0]

PLEASE - HERE IS THE CONTACT INFO TO THE RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE
- who took 5 young baby elephants (who need their mothers until they are 16 - to lifetime - they form extremely strong loving and advaced social bonds with their family and herd) from their mothers to inprison them in hellish conditions - temples of animal abuse for life.

LET’S NOT GIVE UP UNTIL THEY ARE REUNITED WITH THEIR MOTHERS!!!
-
Five young elephants transferred from Assam to Tamil Nadu temples
(September 2026)

They were moved ~3,000 km by road as “gifts” of privately owned captive elephants (commercial sale is illegal).

Activists question ownership, (either way - you can never ”own” an elephant - it’s enslavement and absurd) possible wild origins (caught wild from their mothers), the long journeys 7 days in ropes and chaines on a truck 3000 km from their homes in Assam, and lifelong welfare, they will live in extreme suffering for about 60 years.

Elephants & destinations:

•Durga (~5, female) → Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai

•Hiralal (~8, male) & Shiva (~6, male) → Arunachaleswarar Temple, Tiruvannamalai

•Rupsing (~13, male) → Sri Vaidyanatha Swamy Temple, Vaitheeswaran Koil

•Bijuli (~5, female) → Kanchi Kamakoti Gajashala, Kancheepuram
Temple contacts

•Meenakshi Amman, Madurai: 0452-2344360 | [email protected] | https://t.co/guKJrnbMrg

•Arunachaleswarar, Tiruvannamalai: 04175-252438 | [email protected] | https://t.co/Y6GEzJChEq

•Vaitheeswaran Koil: ~04364-279423 | [email protected]

•Kanchi Kamakoti, Kancheepuram: 044-27222115 | [email protected] | https://t.co/J4rGz2yrcO |
X: @KanchiMatham

How it works & welfare:
Young elephants are separated from mothers, trained through intense torture for compliance, then kept in short chaines on hard floors, isolated, and used for rituals/blessings.

This causes chronic stress (swaying, etc.) for decades.
Their entire lives are confined in extreme suffering.

No animal-welfare motive drives these moves—”tradition” and prestige do.

Mechanical elephants are a cruelty-free alternative already used in some temples.

Temple monetary gains:
Elephants attract more pilgrims and donations, boosting overall revenue (major TN temples already earn ₹40–60+ crore yearly from offerings and tourism).

Prestige and festival appeal attract publicity from an uneducated public audience.

THIS NEEDS TO END
NOW!! FREE THE ELEPHANT BABIES.
RETURN THEM TO THEIR MOTHERS.

[Signe Sol @SigneSol0]

You think they tame and train elephants with treats and appraisal??
Let me give you a wake up call.
They torture the elephant so hard, sometimes to death, and if their body survive, their soul dies, all of the elephants willpower is gone forever.

—-
From the article:
Ever wondered what we really do to our captive elephants? What is the real story behind those chains and shackles, those majestic caparisoned giants who stand with harnesses and ropes all over them, including on the most sensitive parts of their body?
It is common knowledge that many jumbos die a 'mystery' death in Kerala.
One of the most gruesome reasons is a process called 'ketti azhikkal', in which the elephants, just emerging from the months-long 'musth' period, when their testosterone levels shoot up by over 60%, are tortured.

‍Watch the video (see link with article and video)
to see how we kill our captive elephants
Reports say that multiple mahouts or even goons join up, get drunk and torture the chained animal with rods, sticks and hooks.
In several cases, such elephants, tied and tortured ruthlessly, die. Others live a miserable life or die of tuberculosis, septicemia, infections, foot-and-mouth diseases and other medical reasons including digestive issues caused by impaction.
What is important is that we are still engaged in a feudal obsession with the pachyderm and we cannot give up the Rs 200-crore economy that revolves around them.
The animal, whose capture and transfer of ownership is regulated in the country, fetches a jackpot during festivals.
Reports say that elephants are leased for 99 years at a cost of Rs 1 crore. Depending upon the 'value,' judged on the grandeur of the animal, he could fetch anything between a few thousands to lakhs for a single day's work.

Article with video here:

https://t.co/AkYj67lMId

[Chinmayi Sripaada @Chinmayi]

These men saved an elephant baby and returned the baby to its mother

We cant allow baby elephants separated forcefully for a lifetime of solitude away from its herd.

Return Baby Durga to its mom
Stop baby Shiva from being transported to Tamilnadu
Stop elephant transfers.

Elephants belong with their herd.

[Priyanshi @pricatttt]

From internal investigations, it has come to light that initially Durga was not approved to be transferred. Then what happened suddenly that not only was she cleared to go but taken out in the dead of night from Manas national park?
#WhyTheChains
#VerifyTheFive @CMOTamilnadu

[Bargavi Rajagopal @Bargavi_R]

@pawsunmute @TVKVijayHQ @PetaIndia @PFCII @CMOTamilnadu @CTR_Nirmalkumar @RameshOffcl
Save Durga, Rupsing, hiralal,Shiva,Bijuli!
#WhyTheChains #NoElephantsInTemples #StopElephantCaptivity #VerifyThefive

[Paws Unmute | Animal Justice @pawsunmute]

Shiva has eyes that can see us, but no voice that can tell us what he feels.
When an elephant is helpless, our responsibility becomes greater—not smaller.
Don't look away from Shiva.
@TVKVijayHQ @PetaIndia @PFCII
#SaveShiva #VoiceForTheVoiceless