thrissur if guruvayur kesavan and kottarakkara chandrasekharan of the yore basked in their names the new generation tuskers are being showered with titles elephant owners are frantically pushing for prestigious titles to adorn their gentle giants in the past two years at least 22 elephants have been conferred titles like gajarajan matanga chakravarthi madaga sree gajathipathi kalabha kesari gaja veeran etc earlier a tusker earned a title with its aweinspiring physical characteristics now the elephant owners and temple authorities connive at decking the animal with titles popularly known as pattam a title makes an elephant popular and popularity brings in the money the reason why there is a mad rush for titling jumbos the pattam is awarded mostly by temple authorities based on their own criteria and also by various elephant fans associations history has it that the first major elephant that was given a title was valiya padmanabhan the mammoth was conferred the veera sringala pattam some 150 years ago by the travancore royal family the next was obviously guruvayur kesavan the most celebrated captive elephant that was conferred the gajarajan pattam in those days only one elephant held a particular title today there will be at least threefour elephants with same title its all a money game says heritage animal task force president v k venkitachalam if you have an elephant and are ready to spend rs 10000 your elephant will get whatever pattam you want it was four years ago that an elephant owner near kunnamkulam spent rs 35000 to get a particular title for his elephant a title brings celebrity status to the owner of the elephant as also earns the organizers a place in the sun the rate for a pattam varies between rs 10000 and rs 50000 said an elephant contractor temple authorities and elephant owners admit that conferring a pattam and subsequently a small article appearing the next day in newspaper about it brings unmatched popularity to the temple elephant jumbo owners and even the animals mahouts