Kochi, Dec 3 (PTI) Kerala forest department has booked a case against the officials of the famous Poornathrayeesa Temple here for failing to maintain the prescribed distance between elephants while parading them as part of the annual festival.

The social forestry wing of the state forest department has registered the case on Monday night.

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A senior forest official on Tuesday said though the jumbos were paraded maintaining the three metre distance, prescribed by the Kerala High Court, in the initial three days of the festival, the norms were violated by the temple management on Monday evening.

"We were strictly monitoring the festival during the past two-three days. All the 15 elephants were found paraded together on Monday evening violating the norms prescribed by the High Court," he told PTI.

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He said the case was registered under sections of the Kerala Captive Elephant (Management and Maintenance) Rules and also based on the directives of the High Court.

The case would be filed at the local court and a report would be submitted at the High Court, the officer added.

The Kerala High Court recently termed the life of a captive elephant as an "eternal Treblinka" -- the second deadliest extermination camp built and operated by Nazis during the second world war-- and stipulated conditions to be followed for grant of permission to parade jumbos in festivals or other events.

The High Court observed that captive elephants were being extensively used in religious festivals in Kerala and the same was being sought to be justified on the touchstone of tradition and religious practice.

It said that in reality, the animals were being commercially exploited without any care. "As such, the possession of the majority of the elephant appears to be illegal, which needs to be verified by the government," the High Court said while stipulating the conditions to be followed for grant of permission to parade jumbos in festivals or other events.

The conditions included adherence to the model feeding schedule, issuance of fitness certificates by a government veterinarian only, providing a shaded, clean and adequate shelter and eight hours of rest in a day.

The court also laid down conditions on transportation of elephants for exhibition, saying that no pachyderm should be transported on foot for more than 30 kilometers a day and anything more than that, upto a maximum of 125 km per day, has to be by vehicle.

It also said that no elephants should be transported between 10 pm and 4 am, no procession of pachyderms be permitted through public roads between 9 am and 5 pm and no jumbos be exhibited for a continuous period of more than 3 hours.

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