Killing of pregnant elephant in India: ‘Justice will prevail’
Three suspects have been identified in investigations into the killing of a pregnant elephant that ate an explosives-filled pineapple, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said yesterday.
"Justice will prevail," Vijayan said in tweets amid huge anger and grief after tragic visuals of the elephant, dead in a river, emerged in a forest officer's post earlier this week.
"In a tragic incident in Palakkad district, a pregnant elephant has lost its life. Many of you have reached out to us. We want to assure you that your concerns will not go in vain," said the chief minister.
"An investigation is underway, focusing on three suspects. The police and forest departments will jointly investigate the incident. We will do everything possible to bring the culprits to justice."
Earlier yesterday, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar had also tweeted that the central government would investigate the tragedy.
"We will not leave any stone unturned to investigate properly and nab the culprit(s). This is not an Indian culture to feed fire crackers and kill," the minister tweeted.
The wild elephant strayed into a village near Silent Valley National Park in Palakkad last Wednesday and ate a pineapple filled with firecrackers. It exploded in its mouth and in that state the elephant walked for days in pain before it went into a river and died standing on May 27.
Villagers in the region often use firecracker or explosive-filled fruit to protect their fields from wild animals, but the practice has been widely condemned as cruel and disturbing.
Photos shared on social media showed the elephant standing in the river with her mouth and trunk in water, perhaps for some relief from pain. Officials guessed from its shrunken form that the animal may have eaten the fruit 20 days ago and had starved since. She didn't harm a single human being even when she ran in searing pain in the streets of the village, locals and officials said.
The incident has attracted huge condemnation on social media, where the memes showed the mother elephant saying it was her fault to trust the human race, while the unborn child in her womb kept asking: "What is my fault, Ma?"
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