[Sedate]

To clear the air and to bring a bit more clarity to the topic :-

1) The elephant encroached to human settlement - The elephants are so intelligent that they normally will fell tree trunk on to the electric fences and break them to create pathways to human settlement.

2) It ate "something" that was having a pressure cracker inside it. It got injuries in its upper and lower lip. The elephant was not killed by the explosion.

3)However the explosion induced damage prevented it from chewing food. From what little is known, it started eating pineapples since much chewing is not needed and it can swallow it fully. However over the period, the wounds got infected and flies started to come in. This caused the elephant to move into water filled pond. It gradually lost its strength as it didn't have much food and finally drowned in the water. The reason for death is drowning even though the chain of events started with the explosion.

Now to me, this looks like an incident where a thief broke into my own house and ate the food I prepared myself to cause diarrhea to someone else. The thief got diarrhea - he was afraid to take treatment and died of dehydration! Yes, surely I am a culprit with bad intention to cause health issues for another person, but how come the thief is now a martyr! Defies my logic.

Very few(if at all any) wild boars eat the crackers. They use their tusks - This causes the crackers to go off and scares away the entire herd. This is a cracker that gives out more sound than causing physical injury if going off in an open area. But this going off in a closed area like mouth causes damage due to pressurized waves. It is like the effect of a grenade in open area versus in an underground bunker.

The entire episode was an accident!

However, coming to another angle, this news was used by a particular political party and they aired it as - "An sacred animal having very high importance in religious festival was fed with explosives in a place where another religion is a majority". Now that is what is more evil than the fire cracker itself in my humble opinion.

First of all the incident took place in a different district. Second, the animal ate the fruit and no one fed it. It didn't die of the explosion, but the accident caused it injuries, it got to starve, lose strength and finally drown in water. There was numerous attempt done by forest department of Kerala to tame the elephant and bring it to land to accept treatment - But all failed and the poor soul(s) now rest in peace!

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by avira_tk

Legal is just a technicality, your farmland can be declared forest land or some other classification that means you can literally do nothing with it, even though its in your possession. If a rare species of plant is found there or if a wild animal strays in, that's good enough reason for reclassification. You lose your livelihood and your inheritance (in most cases).

Can an agricultural land that was perfectly legal and used for cultivation for over 100 years be converted to buffer zone all of a sudden? I don't think that happens or even if it does its not an easy job. Probability of finding a rare species of plant/animal life all of a sudden is very less in a land that was used as farmland for quite a lot of years. There are instances of encroachment of farmland for road widening/development, but then in most of the case it is compensated with money or land. Even a loss of a single coconut tree is compensated.

[susheel_kainat]

Lets get some facts straight -
Right from the start we humans have been taking over the forest lands meant for everyone. I wouldn't say just animals because we Homo-sapiens are also a part of the animal kingdom who consider ourselves as epitome of creation. We are the ones who coined wild and domestic animals while we ourselves have wilderness within us like any other animals. Its in the nature of every species to draw borders and not just humans. As population boomed we became the majority and started taking over the lands and marking borders and the expansion continued. The lands at one point considered forest lands became legal farmlands. At one point things started to get haywire when the amount of land left for the so called wild animals except us started shrinking because they suddenly became the minority and on top of it the food scarce forced them to venture into the so called human zone. This aggression has been there from beginning of life and not something newly introduced by any part of the world. Now to all those keyboard warriors who at the confinement of their metro cities forget to understand that, once upon a time even that was a forest - be it Bangalore, Mumbai etc. We all have been part of this issue, at-least indirectly if not directly. So please understand none of the people here are saints. Kerala is a land where elephants are considered a pride especially in the central part. I'm from Kerala and I know how people are crazy about them and have great fan fare following them. Those who never been part of this will never understand that. In short normally people respect elephants irrespective of religion. With respect to the news, there are so many rounds going in the public forums and news websites and its hard to believe blindly everything they puke unlike you are that kind of person who believes journalism in nowadays is the most ethical job in the world. It was at a time and there are still some genuine persons but they are easily overshadowed by those who wants to earn based on TRP ratings and nothing else. To me they are just mutated versions of Kevin Carter who shows a lot of crocodile tears while deep inside they feel nothing. Sorry to those genuine guys.

Now coming to the issue. Firstly, people wont intentionally set these kind of cracker stuffed pineapples or whatever targeting the elephants. They are mainly targeted for wild boars to save their harvest from being ravaged. Yes, probably the very same harvested vegetables which we buy from Shops at ease and complain about inflation but don't bother to think much about struggle to bring them up. Sadly, this time the poor elephant was caught up and I'm pretty sure whoever set that trap originally, will be regretting badly even though it was not intentional. So deep inside, none with senses would do that. Yes, there are psycho miscreants in every part of the world, but I doubt, that is the case here. There are electric fences throughout the world around forest ranges and not one part of the country to handle the movement of animals. There also cases where they get electrocuted and in some cases hit by trains vehicles etc. Yes its very saddening to see an elephant die, but let me ask you all, is it only because its an elephant??
If it was wild boars would there be this much virtual outcries?
What about other animals?
Don't they deserve to live?
Don't they deserve a natural death?
If so then this world will have only vegans. I'm not saying vegans are godly saints since they would have made their own share of crimes.

Yes its saddening but please don't paste that melodramatic image of yourself and start portraying wrongly about a state or its people just because you are not directly part of this.

So as I said before, imbibe it with a pinch of salt - "We all are indirectly (if not direct) part of all the heinous crimes at one point or the other against any animals."

[deathwalkr]

Originally Posted by poloman

How does that matter? The postmortem clearly indicates the mouth was exploded and the animal had not eaten for more than 2 weeks. The elephant can't assemble explosives right? Sepsis had spread and the only thing it could do was go and stand in water to alleviate some pain. What a painful way to die..!!

I assume he made that comment to point out the different errors in the media reports that keep coming out. Nothing more nothing less.

And ladies and gentlemen, please refrain from painting the whole state and it's people with the same brush. Just a request.

[poloman]

As I explained few posts back, the investigation has revealed that the device was explosive laden coconut used by the culprits to hunt wild boars. They were in to selling of wild boar meat. Hunt meat trade is more lucrative than farming in many such places. Widely sold in toddy shops and households You don't need to be a wildlife expert to comment on these things.

As expected the main accused is the son of a estate owner not a poor farmer. The news is in malayalam, translation may be available
https://www.manoramaonline.com/news/...ant-death.html

[Samurai]

Originally Posted by Sedate

Very few(if at all any) wild boars eat the crackers. They use their tusks - This causes the crackers to go off and scares away the entire herd. This is a cracker that gives out more sound than causing physical injury if going off in an open area

You are saying this cracker can only scare the wild boar. That means wild boar can't be hunted/killed using this method.

Originally Posted by poloman

As I explained few posts back, the investigation has revealed that the device was explosive laden coconut used by the culprits to hunt wild boars. They were in to selling of wild boar meat.

But according you it is specifically used for hunting wild boars, for their meat.

I am confused now. Only one of you can be right. Which is it? Can someone with first hand knowledge confirm?

[GTO]

Mod Note: Topic has been discussed enough, guys. Thread closed.