Hyderabad: Actor and singer Zahrah S. Khan, along with PETA India, has offered a life‑size mechanical elephant to the Telangana State Waqf Board ahead of Hyderabad’s annual Bibi‑ka‑Alam Muharram procession, urging authorities to replace the use of live elephants during the event.
The appeal follows the death of a 33‑year‑old woman at Karnataka’s Dubare Elephant Camp, where she was crushed by an elephant in front of her husband and child. Referring to the incident in a letter to the board, Zahrah S. Khan said elephants used in such events are often chained and beaten by handlers, and can become distressed in noisy surroundings, placing people nearby at risk if the animal turns aggressive.
“The Quran and Hadith emphasize mercy and kindness towards living beings,” Khan wrote, adding, “By using a mechanical elephant instead of one suffering in captivity, the Telangana State Waqf Board could set a compassionate example and become the first in the country to use the mechanical marvel at Islamic events.”
PETA India said the mechanical elephant can replicate many movements of a real elephant. It can move its ears and eyes, swish its tail, raise its trunk and spray water. The model operates on a wheeled platform and can carry people on a mounted seat.
The organisation cited earlier incidents involving elephants during Muharram processions. Elephant Gajalakshmi ran amok in 2004, while Madhuri — which had earlier killed the chief priest of a Jain temple in Kolhapur — was rented for the event in 2017. Last year, a visually impaired elephant named Rupavathi took part despite suffering from arthritis.
PETA India added that more than 30 mechanical elephants are now used by temples across the country, and said it has donated 26 of them after institutions agreed not to own or hire live elephants.
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