The Origin Of The guruvayur Elephant Sanctuary

The Origin Of The guruvayur Elephant Sanctuary

The Guruvayur temple and the Guruvayur elephant sanctuary are famous places in Kerala. The temple has a great culture of care for the elephants.

There are lots of elephants under the Guruvayur temple. These elephants are housed in a special arrangement called punnathoorkotta.

It is also known as guruvayur devaswam elephant sanctuary or guruvayur elephant camp. There are number of people comes to visit the punnathur kotta everyday.

The origin of the Guruvayur elephant sanctuary is related to the tradition of offering elephants to the temple. As per the Indian culture, elephants are considered the symbol of prosperity and pride.

The Guruvayur temple has various unique offerings and the offering of elephants is one of them. Devotees from various places have offered elephants to the Guruvayur temple for a long time.

As the years passed the number of elephants under the temple has been increased gradually. So it becomes difficult to handle this many elephants inside the temple premises.  

In 1975, the Guruvayur Devaswam board decided to construct a separate area for managing those temple elephants and they constructed Punnathoor Kotta Palace to provide sufficient facilities for the temple elephants. Slowly all the elephants are shifted to the punnathur kotta. Later it became one of the famous tourist attractions in Thrissur district.