A first information report (FIR) was filed on Wednesday by Forest Department officials against unidentified persons under relevant sections of Wild Life Protection Act over the incident in which a 15-year-old pregnant elephant died in Kerala’s Malappuram district after it was fed with a pineapple stuffed with explosives. This was disclosed by Divisional Forest Officer, Malappuram to The Pioneer over telephone.
Mohan Krishnan, Section Forest Officer, Nilambur and leader of the Rapid Response Team of the Forest Department, who was the first to reach the spot on hearing about the injured elephant, told this newspaper that it was the most heart-wrenching scene he has seen in his life. “I would like to forget the sight at the earliest. It is haunting me. When I went to the forest, the injured elephant was standing in the Velliyar River to ward off the flies, worms and insects from attacking her. She had accidentally bitten fruits in which someone had stuffed explosives. When she bite the fruit, it burst with force and her mouth was completely damaged incapacitating her from taking any food. The animal ran helter-skelter all over the region but she was careful not to attack anybody,” said Krishnan, yet to recover from the shock.
Though the rescue team managed to bring the elephant out of the river with the help of kumkis (elephants trained in rescuing and controlling wild elephants) she died within minutes on May 28. It was through autopsy that the forest officials came to know that she was on the verge of motherhood.
Krishnan and Divisional Forest Offcier Raveendranath said that the elephant had entered the agricultural fields at Mannarakkadu from the Silent Valley National Park, a reserve forest. “Wild animals like pork and boars used to come in search of food to these farms once in a while. But the farmers keeping fruits stuffed with explosives is a violation of wild Life Act. This is all because of man-animal conflict because the farms are very close to the reserve forest,” they told this newspaper. Local environmentalists said that since pork was anathema to a community it was natural for them to resort to explosives to keep the animal away from the agricultural fields. “But the poor elephant ended up as a victim,” they said. This is not the first time elephants fall prey to dubious means employed to kill them. Kerala has seen many wild tuskers losing their lives when they bite fruits stuffed with explosives planted by poachers who are in search of tusks.
Cruelty to animals have become a routine affair in Kerala, according to Prasant Arya, social activist. “Authorities of Kollam’s famous Oachira temple sold off to slaughter houses nearly 30 bulls offered to the presiding deity by devotees. This has hurt the devotees and I could see many of them weeping standing in front of the temple,” said Arya.
