India: Meet ‘Bob-cut Sengamalam’, a Tamil Nadu temple elephant famous for her hairstyle

Dubai: A temple elephant from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu became an internet sensation this week, after photographs of her unique ‘hairstyle’ vent viral on Twitter. Apparently, the elephant endearingly called ‘Bob-cut Sengamalam’ has fans just because of her unique hairstyle. While Twitter users are loving the stylish gentle giant, many also argued that the animal should be free, and not in captivity.

Sharing photos of the elephant that lives in the Rajagopalaswamy Temple in Mannargudi, Forest officer Sudha Ramen tweeted: “She is famously known as ‘Bob-cut Sengamalam’ who has a huge fan club just for her hair style.”

The photo showed a man styling the elephant’s hair.

Twitter users who had previously visited the elephant, shared photos of her, and said she is a cheerful friendly elephant.

Tweep @singhmukul92 posted: “When she was at an elephant rejuvenation camp in Mettupalayam. She is very friendly and cheerful”

And, tweep @VSKTweetz wrote: “I went to that temple four months ago, it is just 8kms away from my village. I loved her hair style very much. I watched her being bathed by her guard. After bath, her hair was combed…”

However, many tweeps were unhappy to see chains around the elephant’s leg. Last month, news reports of a pregnant elephant dying in Kerala after eating a pineapple stuffed with crackers, went viral, sparking debates about animal abuse, and the treatment of elephants.

Tweep @JaiVignyan posted: “And the elephant is tied with steel chains for its whole life... shame.” And, @sats45 added: “Hope she’s well taken care of unlike many captive elephants in devasthanams (temples) of the south.”

To which, the forest officer @SudhaRamenIFS replied: “We all know that many elephants are held captives at many places in India. And, do understand that a captive animal, or an animal born in captivity will find the wild very hard to survive. Captive Elephant Management rules are strong and followed.”

In follow-up tweets, she added: “Even if the captive elephants are rescued, they are sent to rescue centres and not to the wild. Every district has a captive elephants committee which reviews and monitor the care of these elephants. Kindly understand temple elephants are not brought from wild, most of them are captive born. Not that all captive elephants are badly treated, and not that all are treated well. As an informed citizen, one should know the existing rules in the first place, and if they find the animal is treated badly, they need to inform the concerned authority for immediate action.”