Guwahati: The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA India) has placed a billboard near Janata Bhawan in Guwahati, urging Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to rescue elephant ‘Joymala’ from a temple in Tamil Nadu.
The billboard has been erected to remind the chief minister that the 22-year-old elephant, originally from Assam, is still in the illegal custody of the Arulmigu Nachiyar (Andal) Temple in Srivilliputhur in Tamil Nadu, where she is known as Jeymalyatha.
Joymala remains chained and lonely under the illegal custody of the Temple in Srivilliputhur, it stated.
PETA India has urged that Joymala be sent to a sanctuary where she can live unchained, without weapons and in the company of other elephants.
Since 2021, media reports have documented multiple instances of Joymala being severely beaten by different mahouts, prompting the Assam government to demand her return. A 2022 inspection by PETA India at the Krishnan Kovil temple, where Joymala is kept, revealed that the cruelty was so routine that her mahout used pliers to twist her skin for control.
In March 2025, over 50 veterinarians reviewed documentation of her suffering and signed an opinion, which PETA India sent to authorities in both Assam and Tamil Nadu.
The Assam government had moved the Gauhati High Court in September 2022 to secure Joymala’s release, as her lease to the temple had expired in 2011.
Following an application filed by PETA India urging that the decision regarding Joymala’s custody be made with her best interests in mind, the Gauhati High Court allowed PETA India to intervene in this case, which is scheduled for a hearing on July 30.
PETA India has cautioned that Joymala’s misery could make her unpredictable, posing a risk to mahouts and devotees. The organization cited several incidents in 2024 and 2025 where captive elephants attacked people, including a recent event where elephants ran amok during a Rath Yatra in Ahmedabad.
PETA India advocates replacing live elephants with lifelike mechanical ones for temple ceremonies. It has also offered to gift the Arulmigu Nachiyar (Andal) Temple a mechanical elephant if they agreed to release Joymala.
PETA India stated that last month, actor Trisha Krishnan and the Chennai-based NGO People for Cattle in India (PFCI), donated a life-size mechanical elephant named Gaja to the Sri Ashtalinga Athisesha Selva Vinayagar and Sri Ashtabhuja Athisesha Varahi Amman temples in Aruppukottai.
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This initiative marked the first instance in the Madurai region – and the entire Virudhunagar district – where a temple has embraced a mechanical elephant for religious ceremonies.
Currently, at least eighteen mechanical elephants are used in temples across South India, with PETA India having donated ten of them.
