Indian wildlife officials are mourning the death of a pregnant wild elephant in Kerala, India, after eating a firecracker-filled pineapple. The elephant originally belonged to Silent Valley National Park (SVNP), Palakkad.
According to chief wildlife Surendra Kumar, "her jaw was broken, and she was unable to eat after she chewed the pineapple, and it exploded in her mouth." He told the Tribune India that he is confident the tampered-with pineapple was meant to kill the animal.
Surprisingly, the injured animal remained calm even though she is under excruciating pain. She did not create any havoc much to the surprise of the forest department officials, the New York Post reported.
Investigating the Elephant's Death
The Indian Express reported that after a week since the discovery of the 15-year-old elephant's body, investigations had not yielded any results. The elephant's body was discovered on May 25, two weeks after it died.
The distance crossed by the elephant since the injury proves to be a challenge for forest officials to solve the case and catch the culprits.
"Environment Ministry has taken a serious note of the death of the elephant and has sought a complete report on the incident. Stern action will be taken against the culprit(s)," said Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.
Furthermore, KK Sunil Kumar, divisional forest officer of Mannarkkad, said that the injury was already a few days old when the elephant was discovered for the first time. That is why they have not been able to find the place where the elephant got its injury.
Authorities admitted that it would not be easy to find out the culprit as they have to depend on local information since these areas are remote. The detection of the nearby areas and information gathered from the wildlife and forest activists will aid the authorities to solve the case, said Kumar.
Other Angles Probed in the Investigation
The ill-intention feeding of the elephant has reportedly occurred in a remote valley in Attappadi, a forest located in the southern part of India. It said that the elephant had entered the valley last month to look for food, reports the Quint.
The pregnant elephant later died standing in a Malappuram district river, according to Mohan Krishnan's Facebook post.
But authorities are now looking at a different angle, whether someone intentionally gave the elephant the firecracker-filled pineapple or not. A strong possibility that authorities are looking at is that the fruit could have been a snare laid to kill wild boars and pigs.
These type of snares are common in the villages of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka that have been known to kill wild elephants.
An officer said that reports of crackers and country-bombs being used to trap and kill pigs and other wild animals are standard on the forest fringes. This activity is considered illegal, but authorities are not putting it out of the equation because the elephant might have accidentally eaten it.
Another official said that since elephants are known to walk for up to 100 kilometres a day, the animal could have strayed far from the spot where it was inflicted with the injury.
Wildlife experts are now calling for tough actions against those who lay such explosive traps in the forest areas stating that such horrendous acts should not be tolerated, as this could not only be aimed to animals but humans as well.
As of now, the investigation is underway, said wildlife warden of the Silent Valley National Park Samuel Pachuau.
