Video: This temple elephant in Tamil Nadu can play mouth organ with its trunk

Coimbatore, Jan 22: Had superstar Rajesh Khanna been around and acting at his peak, he would have surely picked her for his 1971 blockbuster film 'Haathi Mere Saathi'. Lakshmi, an elephant from Coimbatore, has become a star attraction for her unique ability to play a mouth organ with her trunk. With her skills, she certainly would have been an automatic choice among the pachyderms that made the Khanna film a massive hit.

Lakshmi, who is at a rejuvenation camp in Thekkampatti where elephants are brought from across temples and mutts in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry every year, enthralled the visitors and onlookers with her unusual ability, reported ANI news agency. Her mahout also deserves a lot of credit for making Lakshmi learn the skill.

"My elephant's name is Lakshmi. She can play the mouth organ. It was very hard to train her to play the organ and she initially broke five instruments. Gradually she began to understand what I say and now my Lakshmi can play for 15 minutes without stopping in our temple," said Lakshmi's mahout of the Irattai Thiruppathy Temple, Tamil Nadu.

At the camp, the animals are given the best possible treatment and food for health improvement and also scanned for any ailment or infection. The camp takes place for 48 days. Late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa had taken the initiative in 2003.