No more 'cruel' jumbo parades, Hindu group says
India's famed elephant parades must stop because they are cruel to the animals, says a Hindu group which has scrapped the practice for the coming festival season.
The Sivagiri Mutt or spiritual institution, which controls 30 temples in the palm-fringed coastal state of Kerala, said Wednesday it would no longer use elephants during the popular festivals.
"Our guru, Sree Narayana Guru, has taught us not to inflict pain even on an ant so disciples of the guru have the responsibility to follow his philosophy," Swami Prakashananda, head of the mutt, told AFP.
Sree Narayana Guru was a Hindu reformer and social revolutionary.
Prakashananda was speaking by telephone from the Hindu group's headquarters in the tourist town of Varkala, 40 kilometers (25 miles) north of Thiruvananthapuram, capital city of Kerala.
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