The Elephant Fort at Thirssur

The Punnathoor Kotta is located about 3 km away from the famous Guruvayoor temple in Thirssur district of Kerala, and lots of tourists visit this place. This place is also known as Anakkotta – meaning Elephant Fort in Malayalam (language of Kerala). The elephant farm is said to be the largest in India and is owned by the temple. The elephants in this place were given to the temple by devotees and are looked after and trained here by the paid mahouts. The Hindus look upon an elephant as a sacred animal as it is considered to be a living symbol of Lord Ganesh, the deity who removes all obstacles from our lives. At this place, there were more than 60 elephants (not sure of the exact figure) ranging for baby elephants to jumbo sized elephants. An Indian elephant is certainly smaller than an African one.