Plea to govt to allow jumbos in processions

Charminar: The organisers of traditional processions of Old City including Bibi Ka Alam and Bonalu collectively demanded that the State government find a solution towards ensuring hassle-free festivities, in view of the High Court upholding the prohibition of use of zoo animals for traditional processions. They demanded that elephants be provided for these processions through a special arrangement, if not from the zoo.

Sri Akkanna-Madanna Mahankali Mandiram president G Niranjan and Fatima Seva Dal Society secretary Aliuddin Arif rued over the orders prohibiting utilising the services of the pachyderm in the traditional processions. In its recent judgement, High Court dismissed the petition of Hazrath Ghouse-e-Azam Welfare Society for taking service of tuskers in procession. As such 'Rajani' from Nehru Zoological Park cannot be used for any procession, including 'Bonalu' and 'Moharrum' processions.

Niranjan recently represented the matter to Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao requesting him to preserve and maintain the culture and customs of the Telangana people. He pointed out that it was an age-old practice of using elephant in the 'Bonalu' procession of 'Ujjaini Mahankali' temple of Secunderabad, Sri Akkanna Madanna Mahankali Mandirm, Haribowli, Shalibanda and 'Nallapochamma' temple of Sabzimadi.

Similarly, the 'Bibi ka Alam' was taken out on an elephant as part of 'Moharam' procession for centuries. The present elephant 'Rajani' was purchased by the Nizam Trust and kept for maintenance in Nehru Zoological Park which was being used for these precessions all these years, and it is an example of 'Ganga-Jamuni Tehzee.'

The High Court issued orders on March 18, 2019 in a case for not using the elephant 'Rajani' for processions based upon the counter affidavit file by the Chief Conservator of Forest. In the light of the High Court order, the chief conservator of the Forest had written a letter to the Special Chief Secretary to the Government, Environment & Forest on April 17, 2019 and requested the government to advise the organisers of the 'Bonalu' and 'Moharrum' processions to hire elephants from neighboring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and they would provide no objection certificate (NOC) to organizers.

The Chief Conservator of Forests in their affidavit suppressed several facts which resulted in the High Court decision, they alleged.They appealed to the Chief Minister to convene a meeting of the 'Bonalu' and 'Moharrum' organizations along with concerned officials to sort out the issue.