Hyderabad: The Telangana Waqf Board on Thursday, April 30, submitted a letter to the Principal Secretary of the Minorities Welfare Department asking for a permanent arrangement of an elephant for the Muharram procession in the state.
The Waqf Board suggested that since the state government is facing difficulties in procuring a trained elephant for the Muharram, Gyavri Shareef and Bonalu processions every year, it should consider procuring it from Karnataka or Kerala, either by buying it or by asking the neighbouring states to gift it to Telangana.
Moreover, the Waqf Board had sent a letter to the state government on July 8 last year, requesting the Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife) to write to their counterparts in Karnataka and Kerala, asking for two trained elephants, a male and a female, either through sale or gift, the letter added.
Meanwhile, Telangana High Court advocate and a member of the Shia Companions Organisation, Syed Ali Jaffry, has said that this action was long overdue as his organisation had submitted a proposal for the same to All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi in September last year.
“The government is working at a snail’s pace; since the Telangana High Court banned using elephant Rajni (owned by the Nizam trust) for processions in 2019, this is a problem we face every year. Still, the government chooses to wait for the very last moment before scrambling to get an elephant,” Jaffry told Siasat.com.
A recurring problem
Last year, too, the Telangana government had been hopping around different states to arrange for an elephant for the Muharram procession before Bibi ka Alam organisers managed to obtain clearances from the Forest Department in Karnataka for the transportation of elephant Lakshmi.
Jaffry also put forward the concern that arranging an elephant at the last minute would create an untoward situation. “There are about 45 days for Muharram to begin. We had put a suggestion last year itself, so that if we get an elephant in time, it can be trained to stay calm at the time of the procession.”
In Hyderabad, the practice of carrying the Alam on an elephant on the 10th of Muharram (Ashura) is a 17th-century Golconda-era tradition and continues each year.
Ever since the High Court ban, the HEH Nizam Trust and local Shia organisations have been bringing elephants from other states to carry the Bibi ka Alam. The procession starts at Bibi ka Alawa in Dabeerpura and concludes at Masjid-e-Ilahi in Chaderghat.
Use mechanical elephant: PETA
Meanwhile, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) had written a letter to the organisers last year, asking them to utilise its mechanical elephant.
“With realistic appearance and functions, these mechanical elephants can replicate the experience of a real animal. They can shake their heads, move their ears, swish their tails, and also lift their trunks,” PETA had stated in its letter.
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