Kerala Elephant May Have Accidentally Consumed Cracker-Filled Fruit, Says Environment Ministry

A 15-year-old elephant consumed a pineapple filled with powerful fire crackers which exploded in its mouth in the Silent Valley forest. It died in the Velliyar River a week later on May 27.

Kerala Forest Department had on June 4 said to have taken one persons into custody. (Image: AFP)

New Delhi: In what comes as a huge revelation, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on Monday clarified that preliminary investigations into the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala have found that it may have accidentally consumed a fruit filled with crackers. The investigation further states that locals often resorted to illegal practice of planting fruits filled with explosives to repel wild boars from entering plantation farms. On May 27, report of a 15-year-old pregnant elephant's death due to eating a pine apple filled with firecrackers which exploded in its mouth irked a massive controversy with outrage pouring in from the entire country and animal- and wildlife-related bodies condemning the incident. Environment Ministry is said to be in constant touch with Kerala government and has sent them detailed advisory for immediate arrest of culprits and stringent action against any erring official that led to elephant's death.

Primary investigations revealed, the elephant may have accidentally consumed in such fruit. @moefcc is in constant touch with Kerala Govt & has sent them detailed advisory for immediate arrest of culprits & stringent action against any erring official that led to elephant's death

— MoEF&CC (@moefcc) June 6, 2020

The post mortem revealed that the female elephant was pregnant with a two month old foetus. It was noticed that the upper and lower jaw, tongue and teeth were blown away. Experts said that the elephant had eaten a pineapple filled with fire crackers. Kerala Forest Department made all efforts to rescue her from the river using trained elephants. However, despite all endeavours the wounded elephant mother, along with her unborn calf, could not be saved.

A review meeting under the chairmanship of Shri Sanjay Kumar, DGF&SS was conducted on 07.06.2020 to discuss the progress on the action taken for the death of female wild elephant in Palakkad, Kerala.#Elephant#ForNature pic.twitter.com/N0Hoenvjcm

— MoEF&CC (@moefcc) June 8, 2020

Kerala forest department team, probing the killing of a pregnant elephant, had on June 4 said to have taken one persons into custody. Several leaders including Bharatiya Janata Party's Maneka Gandhi, Smriti Irani, Congress' Shashi Tharoor and others took to twitter to show their displeasure over the incident. The gruesome killing of the animal even gained a communal colour after former Union Minister Maneka Gandhi claimed that the incident happened in a Muslim-dominated Malappuram district. The Malappuram Police later registered a case under Section 153 of the IPC against former Union Minister and BJP leader Maneka Gandhi for her 'communal' remark. Malappuram Superintendent of Police Abdul Karim said that based on various complaints received, one FIR has been registered against the BJP leader.