Many of these temples own one or more temple elephants, here they are giving the elephants bathes getting them ready for the Thirunakkara Pakal Pooram held here at Kottayam temple. You have to remove your shoes and go barefoot here, and believe me this was not easy with the hot sun heating up the ground and also walking on gravel. Your best bet would be to go around to the back door and enter near the elephants, I found this out the hard way.