Kerala Elephant Incident – Is Devil rising within us?

Recently i got to know about the incident which happened in one of the villages of Kerala it was shocking and i was in disbelief, hearth broken and speechless when i read about killing of pregnant elephant. This is rarest of rare incidents i have heard or seen in decades where a pregnant elephant is targeted. I don’t want to blame anyone whether it was intentional act or misfortune which has occurred, but at the end we have lost 2 valuable lives as she was going to give birth in 18 to 20 months. She became the victim to an act of human cruelty, justice has to be prevailed and if there are people behind this then they should be punished.

In a country where we love, worship and revere our elephants in the image of Lord Ganesha such kind of coward and brutal act is unacceptable. This incident has brought Global shame to all INDIANS.

As per the reports from forest officials, a 15 year old Pregnant Wild Elephant came out from Silent Valley Forest (Attappadi) in search of food on 27 May and  then she chewed on an explosive-stuffed pineapple that went off in its mouth, whether she was offered the pineapple stuffed with firecrackers intentionally or she picked it up herself is still questionable and is not known whereas investigation is going on. After the firecracker exploded in the mouth her jaw was broken and inner lining damaged with severe injuries. Unable to bear such excruciating pain she ran around the village without causing any damage.

As due to severe damages to mouth she was not able to drink water or chew any food further and to reduce the pain she reached the Velliyar River and stood inside the water body. Two elephants- Neelakanthan and Surendran were called up by forest officials for the rescue operation however injured elephant did not step out of the river and died while standing in it.

"When we saw her, she was standing in the river, with her head dipped in the water. She had a sixth sense that she was going to die. She took the Jalasamadhi in the river in a standing position," Krishnan, who was deputed to bring the elephant back to the shore, wrote.

Farmers usually use pineapples and other fruits stuffed with firecrackers which is used to kill wild boars that destroy the crops. Heinous acts such as trapping, baiting, poisoning and capturing carries a fine of ₹25,000 or a jail term of 7 years, or both under the Wildlife Protection Act.

The incident came to light when forest official, Mohan Krishnan, wrote an emotional note on his Facebook page “With her mouth and tongue destroyed in the explosion, she paced around hungry without being able to eat. She must have been more worried about the health of the child inside her than about her own hunger.”

Before ending the article i would like to conclude by saying that each one of us as an individual has both the GOD and DEVIL within us, but we are letting the DEVIL to get awaken and rise from us, Hence we should not let him loose and if we are not able to act kind and good to others then at least we can try to be more balanced.