The story of a pregnant elephant who died trusting humans

Recently, we all would have come across the incident of a pregnant elephant who died in Kerala (India) standing in a river because of a person or group of a person fed* a pineapple to her which was filled with firecrackers. I was deeply disturbed by reading this.

For those, who don’t know the story, here it is that happened:

A wild elephant came out of the forest and was roaming across the streets in a village located in Kerala in search of food. People generally offer fruits and veggies to elephants on the streets in India.

Some locals offered her a pineapple filled with firecrackers and it exploded in her mouth breaking her jaw and causing severe injuries in her mouth. Generally, these types of fruits filled with crackers are used to keep wild boars and other animals to stay away from crops on the farm. But unfortunately, it was given to this elephant and she suffered very badly.

After this, she moved away from there in search of water. She couldn’t eat anything because of the injury for 2 – 3 days. She roamed in search of water and finally found the river Velliyar, near that village in Kerala and she just stood in there in the water, she probably knew she won’t survive, so she stayed in the water waiting for her death.

Soon wildlife officers noticed her and tried to help her by taking her to a safe spot and examine but she collapsed. The officers said that even though she was injured and probably angry too, she didn’t cause any damage to anyone or anything in the village.

The worst thing is she was going to give birth to a baby in 18 to 20 months.

Who should be blamed for this? Why would anyone do such a thing to harm a wild animal that was not even a threat?

There have been many such cases of cruelty towards animals, and very few come on the surface like this, 100s or 1000s of cases just go by. We forget things too quickly.

We shouldn’t.

This deed is not humane. It’s like living in a society of monsters. The value of life is much more important than we think. Not just this pregnant elephant but many more animals like stray dogs, cats, donkeys, or horses everyday face cruelty from humans but still they keep their trust in humans. Even if some human broke their trust, they will start trusting again if some other humans help them out. They do not keep any hatred in them. I have seen many videos of people tying crackers on dog tail to have fun. This is equally heinous. Still, the dog trust humans if you give them food. They don’t ask for anything else.

It’s our responsibility to maintain that trust. We have to teach our families and friends that being compassionate with animals is important, to help them understand the value of life.

I generally always blog about inspirational and positive things here but this thing is not acceptable. This is cruel beyond measure. People need to be more aware of such things that are going on in this world. Please try to spread this message to the people around you.

We, humans, consider ourselves to be the most advanced in the brain but we don’t deserve to be called “Humans” if we lack empathy and kindness. I request all the parents to teach their children to be compassionate, to understand someone else’s pain. It is a very important quality that humans should have.

Day by day, the line between humans and monsters is getting thinner. It is fading. It is becoming more and more difficult to trust human beings. We are always on the lookout for monsters hoping they would have horns and devil face but that’s not the case anymore. We are surrounded by such monsters hiding behind the face of a human.

I am deeply saddened by this post as it has been filled with a lot of negativity which I never support.

I would like to end this on the positive note that: Not all humans are the same. We cannot blame society because of a few people. The doctors and wildlife officers who stood there trying to help the pregnant elephant were from the same place where they fed* this pineapple filled with firecrackers to a wild pregnant elephant.

My only request to all human beings is, let’s outnumber the devil by promising ourselves to be the best version of a human being. A little kindness, a little gratitude, and being a little more compassionate is all we need, to be more human.

Can we do it?

*Note: There are many sources which also indicate that pineapple was not fed to the elephant by anyone but was kept on the farm to get rid of wild boars. Even if this was not meant for the elephant still this is a horrible method that should be stopped anyway.