The Kerala government has said that a crime investigation team will investigate the killing of a pregnant elephant that took place last month in a forest area in Palakkad district. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan was quoted by PTI as saying, "A wildlife crime investigation team from Kozhikode has been dispatched to the place of incident for further investigation." The Central government has taken serious note of the incident and has even sought a report on the same from the state government.
The elephant consumed a pineapple that was filled with potent fire crackers which exploded in her mouth. The elephant died about a week after this incident. As this case of animal cruelty triggered outrage both on and off social media, Kerala CM said that a preliminary investigation has been launched into the death of the elephant in Mannarkad Forest division in Palakkad district of the state. He also said that the police officials were directed to take strict action against all those who are responsible for this act.
Following the anger over this incident on social media, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "The Central government has taken a very serious note of the killing of an elephant in Mallapuram, Kerala. We will not leave any stone unturned to investigate properly and nab the culprit(s). This is not an Indian culture to feed fire crackers and kill. "
This incident has been condemned unanimously by captain of the Indian cricket team Virat Kohli, footballer Sunil Chhetri and Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons Ratan Tata. In a twitter post, Virat Kohli shared the illustration of a pregnant elephant and wrote, "Appalled to hear about what happened in Kerala. Let's treat our animals with love and bring an end to these cowardly acts."
Football legend Sunil Chhetri called the people responsible for the act monsters in his tweet and further said, "We keep failing nature over and over again."
She was a harmless, pregnant Elephant. That makes the people who did what they did, monsters and I hope so hard that they pay a price. We keep failing nature over and over again. Remind me how we're the more evolved species?
- Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) June 3, 2020
Veteran industrialist and philanthropist Ratan Tata shared an open letter on Twitter that ended with "Justice needs to prevail."
- Ratan N. Tata (@RNTata2000) June 3, 2020