Upset About the Elephant Who Died From Eating Firecrackers? It Probably Wasn’t the First

There’s been a lot of outrage on social media over the horrifying incident that saw a 15-year-old pregnant elephant in Kerala’s Silent Valley Forest dying painfully after eating a pineapple stuffed with firecrackers. People are upset about an innocent animal being subjected to unnecessary torture, especially as similar incidents of bored humans hurting harmless animals who showed up during the lockdown keep coming up. Now, a forest official in Kerala told PTI that this pregnant elephant probably wasn’t the first to die from eating firecrackers.

According to the anonymous official, yet another elephant in the Pathanapuram forest range in Kerala’s Kollam district died a similarly gruesome death in April. The officer reported that this elephant was found seriously injured on the outskirts of the forest, unable to eat because of a broken jaw. He is now drawing a comparison to this case with the new one given the similarity in injuries.

Meanwhile, the Kerala forest department has launched an investigation to find out who offered the fruit to the pregnant elephant, and an FIR has been lodged against the unidentified culprits too. They point out that it’s often difficult to find the culprit in such cases since elephants can walk for many kilometres very quickly, and are usually found injured weeks later, after they are alienated from their herd. Many are also speculating that the action which led to the elephant’s death might not be intentional. This comes after Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Surendrakumar told Mumbai Mirror, "It is common for farmers to kill wild boars by laying a trap of crackers camouflaged inside jaggery,” raising doubts about the motive behind this instance. “We are suspecting that the elephant fell prey to the explosive snare used to fend off wild boars. But there is no evidence now to suggest that it was intentionally fed such an explosive,” KK Sunil Kumar, Mannarkkad Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), told The News Minute.

Regardless of the intent though, using snares to trap or kill any animal is punishable under the Wildlife Protection Act.

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