Humanity’s true moral test, its fundamental test… consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals.
A pregnant wild elephant in Kerala, India, was died after eating a pineapple filled with firecrackers which allegedly placed by some locals.
According to forest officials, the wild elephant had left the forests and wandered into a nearby village to search for food before she was given the firecracker-filled pineapple.
Locals usually use pineapples with country-made crackers to protect their fields against wild boars.
“She trusted everyone. When the pineapple she ate exploded, she must have been shocked not thinking about herself, but about the child she was going to give birth to in 18 to 20 months,” the forest officer, who was part of the Rapid Response Team to rescue the elephant, wrote on Facebook.
The cracker explosion in her mouth was so powerful that caused her tongue and mouth to be badly injured.
“Her jaw was broken and she was unable to eat after she chewed the pineapple and it exploded in her mouth,”
“It is certain that she was offered the pineapple filled with crackers to eliminate her,” Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Surendrakumar said.
“She didn’t harm a single human being even when she ran in searing pain in the streets of the village. She didn’t crush a single home. This is why I said, she is full of goodness,” Mr Krishnan continued to write.
The elephant eventually walked up to the Velliyar River and stood there. As shown in the photos, the elephant standing in the river with her mouth and trunk in water, seems to get some relief from the unbearable pain in her mouth.
The forest officer explained she did this to keep her injuries away from flies and other insects.
The forest officials brought two captive elephants to lead the injured elephant out of the river. “But I think she had a sixth sense. She didn’t let us do anything,” The Facebook post wrote.
The officials attempted to rescue the elephant for hours, yet she eventually died by standing in the water at 4pm, on May 27.
“She needs to be given the farewell she deserves. For that, we took her inside the forest in a lorry. She lay there on firewood, in the land she played and grew up. The doctor who did her post-mortem told me that she was not alone. I could sense his sadness though the expression on his face was not visible due to his mask. We cremated her in a pyre there. We bowed before her and paid our last respects,” the forest officer said.
▼ The original posts
The incident came to light after the post from the forest officer went viral on social media. The netizens mourned the tragic death of the elephant by creating artworks and shared them on Facebook and Twitter.
Pregnant elephant dies after eating cracker-stuffed pineapple! @sifydotcom cartoon pic.twitter.com/0CAtISh7AH
— Satish Acharya (@satishacharya) June 3, 2020
As a human iam sorry#Elephant pic.twitter.com/tm2aECzHCS
— karan acharya (@karanacharya7) June 3, 2020
How cruel a human being can be, here is an example..#Elephant #ShameOnHumanity 💔 pic.twitter.com/yBKdXPgqXi
— Naman Chhajed (@nmnchhajed) June 3, 2020
Source: NDTV | The Tribune