It blinks, sways, and lifts its trunk on cue. Its ears flap, its trunk curls back, almost like a greeting. These are India’s newest elephants. They do not have a real elephant’s emotions, but they do have the physical potential. They look familiar and move in ways people recognise.

Across southern India, these life-sized mechanical elephants are replacing captive animals in public spaces.

Inside modest workshops in Kerala, these elephants come together piece by piece.

Artists like Prasanth Prakashan and his team assemble fibreglass bodies over iron frames, embedding motors that power movement. Each elephant can weigh up to 800 kilograms and stand over 10 feet tall.

But there is a lot of hard work involved because people do seek the ‘real’ in the mechanical. It is challenging because the artificial version comes without emotions—something normally expected in a human-elephant bond.

However, the physical aspects must closely resemble the real. The trunk must lift smoothly. The ears must move in rhythm. Some models can even spray water, mimicking behaviour that people instinctively associate with real elephants. Mounted on wheels and powered by generators, they can be transported and operated with relative ease.

Each unit costs upwards of Rs 5 lakh and takes weeks to complete.

Production is still limited; only a few are made each month, but demand is growing. Orders now come not just from within India but also from........

© The Better India