Amidst the cacophony of COVID 19, the cries of animals are not going unheard. Here, we are with one more barbaric instance of human behavior that has come into the limelight from Himachal Pradesh. The netizens displayed their loud contempt and disgust towards the recent death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala. On May 26th, a pregnant cow was severely injured in the Jandutta area of Bilaspur district of Himachal Pradesh.
SP Divakar Sharma from Bilaspur commented on the present case by saying that a highly explosive firecracker, ‘aalu bomb’, was kept inside a ball of wheat flour. This exploded when the cow mistook it for food and chewed on it, thus leaving her mouth with heinous, gaping wounds.
The video that has gone viral on social media shows how horrifically the pregnant cow was injured. Gurdial Singh, the owner of the cow, has been outspoken and blamed his neighbor Nandlal for having deliberately injured the cow. He averred that Nandlal has subsequently run away. The video uploaded by Singh shows the blood oozing out of the cow’s mouth. He demands strict action be taken.
The Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur has said that such incidents will not be tolerated and has ordered the officials to investigate the matter. The CM assured to take strict action in the case saying that the culprits will not be spared.
The officials have said that a case under Section 286 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act has been registered.
Meanwhile, a forest official has talked about how similar techniques are used by the local farmers to kill wild boars. They ordinarily keep firecrackers in wheat flour balls to prevent their crops from being attacked by wild animals.
The same practices have been exposed in Kerala’s Palakkad. Kerala Forest Minister, K Raju has remarked, “One accused arrested, in connection with death of the pregnant elephant in Palakkad.”
Initially, a lot of news handles had wrongly claimed that the episode took place in Kerala’s Muslim majority Malappuram and politicians have been trying to give it a communal touch.
It’s disheartening that the deaths of creatures are linked to communities. Does the question lie how long before the cow’s death is used by politicians as an instrument to agitate communal tension? How long will we witness such brutal acts? Isn’t it time that humans become humane?
