New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to 13 states, including Kerala, on a PIL which has sought a ban on use of barbaric practices such as using cracker-filled fruits to ward off wild animals.

The PIL was filed in the wake of the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala after the animal ate a fruit filled with crackers.

Notices were issued to of Andhra, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Odisha, TN, Tripura, Uttarakhand and West Bengal.

The petition has been filed by advocate VN Sharma on behalf of Shubham Awasthi, a Noida resident.

The petition sought the court’s intervention to end such barbaric practices and switch to scientific methods of avoiding man-animal conflict. It has also sought an increase in forest staff to help the people living near forests.