First mechanical elephant in Mangaluru region to be unveiled at 1,000-pillar Jain temple in Moodbidri on August 29

A three-metre tall mechanical elephant, ‘Airavata’, weighing 800 k.g. will be unveiled at the thousand pillar Jain temple, Tribhuvana Tilaka Chudamani Basadi, at Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada on August 29.

Gifted by actors and mother-daughter duo Raveena Tandon and Rasha Thadani, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India), the mechanical elephant will be unveiled at 3 p.m., PETA India said in a release on August 28.

It will be the world’s first Jain temple to have a mechanical elephant, the release claimed.

First in Mangaluru region

‘Airavata’ is a gift to the temple in honour of the temple’s commitment to never hiring or keeping real elephants, it said.

Using mechanical elephants, real elephants can remain with their families in their forest homes and be spared the suffering of being constantly chained, controlled with weapons, and deprived of everything natural and important to them, it said.

It will be the 12th mechanical elephant donated by PETA India to temples, the first in the Mangaluru region, and a landmark fifth to be embraced by a temple in Karnataka through PETA India’s compassionate efforts, the release said.

25 years of Jain mutt seer’s Pattabhisheka

The elephant will be gifted on the occasion of the silver jubilee year of the Pattabhisheka of the Jain mutt seer in Moodbidri. It will be unveiled by 108 Gulab Bhushan Muni Maharaj in the presence of Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Pattacharya Panditacharyavarya, the seer of Moodbidri Jain Mutt.

A ‘mangala vadhiyam’ performance will follow the inaugural ceremony.