While the killing of a pregnant elephant in an explosion in Kerala has now hit the headlines with many prominent personalities strongly condemning it, forest officials and animal rights activists maintain that killing of wild animals using crude techniques like use of explosives, poisoning and electric lines have been quite rampant in the state.
A fully pregnant elephant aged around 15 was killed on the spot after consuming crackers in fruits in a plantain farm at Upidampara in Malayatoor forest range, around 50 kilometres from Kochi, on October 13, 2010. Investigation revealed that the trap was aimed at wild boars.
A case against the plantain farm owner in this regard was still progressing. Another case of an elephant dying due to a wound in mouth in Kollam district was reported in April this year.
While forest officials strongly assume that the latest incident could be also of similar nature, animal rights activists tend to consider it as an attempt targeting the elephant itself.
Industrialist Ratan Tata, Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli, vice captain Rohit Sharma and actor Akshay Kumar are among the celebrities who strongly flayed the incident. Minister of forest and environment Prakash Javadekar said that the central government has taken a very serious note of the incident. "We will not leave any stones unturned to investigate properly and nab the culprits. This is not an Indian culture to feed fire crackers and kill," he tweeted.
Forest department sources said that the present explosion that took place on Mannarkkad forests on border areas of Palakkad- Malappuram district was not a high intense one and hence, the preliminary assumptions are that it could have been targeted at wild boar that destroy nearby plantations. The wound got infected by the time it came to the notice of forest officials and it resulted into the death.
However, Kerala State Animal Welfare Board member M N Jayachandran said that wild boars were often trapped using explosives packed in meat. In the present case, it was found to be in pineapple and hence, it is strongly suspected that the target was the elephant itself. Encroachments into wildlife habitats and blocking of wildlife corridors were the prime reasons for the man-animal conflicts in Kerala.
According to a 2012 wildlife census based on dung count, there are 6,026 elephants in Kerala forest. As many as 3,468 instances of elephants damaging crops and other property were reported during 2017-18 in the state.