A pregnant elephant has died after allegedly eating a pineapple stuffed with a hidden firecracker that exploded in her mouth.
The shocking case has sparked a criminal investigation into suspected cruelty toward animals, forestry officials said today.
Indian forestry officer Mohan Krishnan witnessed the blast destroy the elephant’s mouth and tongue, leaving her to pace around unable to eat.
‘She must have been more worried about the health of the child inside her than about her own hunger,’ Krishnan wrote online.
The incident drew outrage on social media after Krishnan posted an emotional apology to the elephant.
Forestry officials said the incident happened on May 23 in the Palakkad district of Kerala state in southern India, near farmland where locals sometimes scatter fruit spiked with firecrackers to discourage animals from damaging crops.
‘We only know that the injury (to the elephant) was caused by some explosive substance,’ forestry official Sunil Kumar said.
The perpetrators, he said, could face animal cruelty charges that could bring fines or even a jail term.
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.
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