A 15-year-old elephant passed away after it bit a fruit that was stuffed with firecrackers. The fruit was supposedly placed to capture wild boars and keep away wild elephants. The elephant was reportedly one-month pregnant too.
The incident occurred in Palakkad-Malappuram border
The elephant, which originally belonged to Silent Valley National Park (SVNP) in Palakkad, had traveled to the border area in search of food. This is when she found the fruit, which could have been kept by villagers to rescue their vegetation. Once the elephant bit the fruit, the firecracker exploded which left her grievously injured. Maybe, because of this, the elephant could not consume food later on. This made her weak, and eventually, while standing in a river, she passed away.
Mohanan Krishnan, the section forest officer in Nilambur took to his Facebook page and gave a detailed account of the incident.
He said: “When the pineapple or some fruit she ate exploded like a firecracker in her mouth, she may not have trembled thinking of her own life, but about the new life she was about to give birth in some months.”
He added: “She was probably hungry and pacing back and forth in search of food, maybe thinking about the child in her womb. She was probably unable to eat food with her torn mouth. She reached a village in search of more food. But, even with that agonizing pain, she did not destroy any houses or injure any person. She was a good animal.”
“She was frail and weak when I saw her. Her stomach was shrunk. She kept her wounded mouth immersed in water to probably keep away flies and other worms.”
The elephant passed away while standing
The rescue team had chalked out a plan to rescue the animal from the water. However, the elephant passed away before the team could execute its plan. The officer said: “Everything was set. But I guess she had a sixth sense. Without letting us save her, she died, in a standing position, at 4 pm on May 27. We stood there, shocked.”
The news of the elephant’s pregnancy was revealed only during the post-mortem. Later, the death being unnatural, the officials revealed that the Mannarkkad police will register a case.
Source: The News Minute
