Business tycoon and philanthropist Ratan Tata condemned the heartbreaking incident in which a pregnant elephant was killed in Kerala’s Malappuram after she was fed a pineapple laced with hidden firecrackers by locals last week. The elephant was in intense pain that she died standing in a river.
Several people have expressed their outrage over inhumane killing of a pregnant elephant in Kerala. Ratan Tata took to Twitter to compare the killing of a pregnant elephant in Kerala to a ‘meditated murder’, and demanded justice for the animal.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “I am grieved and shocked to know that a group of people caused the death of an innocent, passive pregnant elephant by feeding the elephant with a pineapple filled with fire.”
“Such criminal acts against innocent animals are no different than acts of meditated murder against other humans,” said the veteran industrialist who is known as a keen animal lover.
He ended the note by asking for justice for the elephant. “Justice needs to prevail,” he further wrote. Many people came in support of Ratan Tata and shared comments expressing the same views as Tata. His tweet has garnered over 28,600 likes and more than 9,300 retweets.
It has been learnt that the elephant entered the village area in search of food but some locals fed her a pineapple in which they had explosives. As the elephant ate pineapple, the firecracker burst in her mouth and led to immeasurable pain.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has assured that strict legal action will be taken against the criminals.
“Strict action will be taken against those who are responsible for killing the pregnant elephant. Forest department is probing the case and the culprits will be brought to book,” the Kerala CM said as outrage continued to pour in throughout the day over the barbaric act.
Kerala forest minister K Raju in a statement said, “Stringent action will be taken against the culprits who are responsible for the killing of a pregnant elephant. ” The minister refrained from responding to Maneka Gandhi’s remark that the incident was a “murder”. He added, “We have formed a team to probe the matter. “
