Kerala temple sets up a life-size "robotic elephant" for a celebration in a first.

A temple in Kerala, India has taken a revolutionary step and added a robot elephant to do religious rituals. This move towards events held in a cruelty-free manner.

The elephant model donated by PETA is 11 ft (3.3m) tall, weighs 800 kg (1763.7 lbs) and is made of an iron frame. Watch on YouTube

Chained, saddled and decorated, elephants play an important part in temple festivals in Kerala - the state is home to about a fifth of the country's roughly 2,500 captive elephants.

PETA said the that subjecting live elephants to extreme loud noises during festivals was "cruel" and urged all temples in the state to switch to lifelike mechanical elephants.

Temple priest Rajkumar Namboothiri told that authorities were happy to receive the mechanical elephant.

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