Pregnant elephant dies after mouth and tongue blown off while eating fruit filled with explosives

People pull the body of a dead pregnant elephant out of the water
ANI via REUTERS
Ellena Cruse4 June 2020

A pregnant elephant died after eating fruit containing an explosive, forestry officials in southern India have said.

The animal was eating what is thought to have been a pineapple when a device blew out her mouth and tongue in the Palakkad district of Kerala.

The incident, which drew outrage on social media, has prompted a criminal investigation into suspected animal cruelty.

Locals in the area have been known to scatter fruit spiked with firecrackers to discourage animals from damaging crops, authorities said.

Forestry officer, Mohan Krishnan, posted an emotional apology to the elephant on May 30.

"Sorry sister," he said “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.”

Forestry official Sunil Kumar said the perpetrators could face animal cruelty charges that could bring fines or even a jail term.

“We only know that the injury (to the elephant) was caused by some explosive substance,” he said.

India has the world’s largest population of the Asiatic elephant but they are classified as an endangered species.

Incidents of human-animal conflict are not uncommon as elephants often stray into human settlements hunting for food.

The pregnant elephant had wandered out of the local Silent Valley National Park in search of food when the incident occurred, forestry officials said.

They later found the elephant trying to cool herself in a stream but as locals tried to heave it out of the water to take it to a treatment centre, the animal collapsed and died.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in