In a fresh incident of cruelty towards wild animals, fireballs were allegedly hurled at an elephant calf by villagers attempting to drive away a herd in West Bengal’s Jhargram district. The state forest department has launched an investigation and is trying to identify those involved, after a video of the incident went viral on social media.
The incident occurred on Tuesday night in the Haribhanga area of Jhargram.
“We have launched an investigation. Strict action will be taken. We cannot allow this,” said State Forest Minister Birbaha Hansda, speaking to The Indian Express over the phone.
“We have seen the video. Some villagers threw fireballs at the elephant herd. We have initiated an investigation and the culprits will be nabbed soon. The faces are not very clear in the video. We are also looking into whether the elephant calf is injured. However, the incident happened on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, the herd travelled around 14 km and on Thursday about 15 km. It is now in the Keshorekha area of Nayagram beat,” said Manish Kumar Yadav, Divisional Forest Officer (Kharagpur), also speaking to The Indian Express over the phone.
According to forest department officials, a herd of 54 elephants was present in the Sankrail beat of the Kalaikunda range (Jhargram). The herd later split into two. Residents objected to their presence and alleged crop damage.
Forest officials were attempting to drive the herd away on Tuesday night. While the elephants were crossing a road in Haribhanga (under the Sankrail beat), villagers reportedly threw a fireball at the animals. The projectile struck a calf that was following its mother. A purported video of the incident appears to show the fireball hitting the calf’s hind legs.
On August 15 last year, a pregnant elephant died in the Jhargram town area after a burning spear, or hula, was thrown at it and became lodged in its back. The pregnant elephant was part of a group of five, including two calves. Two members of a hula party — local youths engaged by the forest department to drive elephants — were arrested.
Following that incident, the state forest department initiated steps to train hula party members twice a year, and to provide them with medical and life insurance. Plans were also made to equip forest officials with body cameras.
On February 3 this year, a mob in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district pelted stones at a wild elephant before using a bulldozer to drive it away in the Dam Dim area. The animal sustained injuries after running into the machine.
“This is a perennial problem. The local villagers undergo crop damages due to the elephants. Then they are not keen to seek compensation because it is much lower (than the market rate of the crops) from the state government. So their anger falls on the animals. State forest department and NGOs should reach out to villagers,” said Suvrajyoti Chatterjee, secretary of the Human and Environment Alliance League, an NGO working to reduce human-animal conflict in Bengal.
“We need more humane approaches to manage adverse interactions between people and elephants. Aggressive tactics will only lead to more stress in elephants and higher risk of human accidents as a result,” said Aritra Kshettry, a conservation ecologist.