`Hell is Here’ shows a mob in West Bengal throwing flaming tar balls at the elephant and its calf as the two panicked animals try to escape
News East West
NEW DELHI: We Indians may worship the elephant-headed god Ganesha as the harbinger of prosperity and good luck, but we have not hesitation in brutalizing real elephants.
A photograph showing a mob in West Bengal’s Bankura district trying to put an elephant and its calf on fire has gone wild on social media as this picture has won the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Award this year.
Clicked by photographer Biplab Hazra and captioned `Hell is Here,’ the picture shows the mob throwing flaming tar balls at the elephant and its calf as the two panicked animals try to escape.
The Mumbai-based Sanctuary Nature Foundation has instituted the prize to create awareness about biodiversity conservation. India is home to 70 percent of the elephants in the world.
Sanctuary Asia posted the `Hell is Here’ picture on facebook, saying, “The heat from the fire scorches their delicate skin as mother and child attempt to flee the mob. In the lead, the cow’s expansive ears are angled forward as she stoically ignores the crowd of jeering men. Behind her, her calf screams in confusion and fear as the fire licks at her feet. Flaming tar balls and crackers fly through the air to a soundtrack of human laughter and shouts.’’
The post says that in Bankura district of West Bengal this sort of humiliation of pachyderms is routine, as it is in the other elephant-range states of Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and more.
“India is the world’s stronghold for the Asian elephant and boasts over 70 per cent of the global population of the species. But this achievement rings hollow as vital elephant habitats and routes continue to be ravaged, and human-elephant conflict escalates to a fatal degree. The ignorance and bloodlust of mobs that attack herds for fun, is compounded by the plight of those that actually suffer damage to land, life and property by wandering elephants and the utter indifference of the central and state government to recognize the crisis that is at hand.For these smart, gentle, social animals who have roamed the sub-continent for centuries, hell is now and here,’’ add Sanctuary Asia.
`Hell is Here’ is really a heart-breaking picture!
