This was the moment when angry residents in India launched firebombs at a female elephant and her calf in a bid to prevent the confused animals from wandering onto their crops. The images, taken in Bishnupur, India, show the extreme lengths the inhabitants go to deter elephants from damaging their property.
Indian men can be seen hurling firebombs at a mom and her calf, with the flames causing the panicked animals to run across a road. In another image, villagers launch stones at a herd passing through their community. Heartbreaking photos also show a family of elephants attempting to navigate a railway line built straight through their habitat.
Elephants wandering into villages and communities is an increasingly common occurrence amid deforestation across India.
The wider setting belongs beside the dramatic frame
Crops, roads and railway lines place human activity and elephant movement in the same landscape. A photograph can show a confrontation but cannot by itself establish a regional trend or explain every participant’s actions. The fire, stone-throwing and railway scenes need separate captions rather than being treated as one continuous event.
The photographer and his earlier award
The photographs were taken by the wildlife photographer Biplab Hazra and distributed by Caters News in January 2019. Hazra said that “the villagers have to save their crops”, and that he hoped the pictures would raise public awareness; villagers also throw rocks and sticks at elephants that come near their fields. In 2017 he won the Sanctuary Wildlife Photographer of the Year award for “Hell is Here”, taken in Bankura district, West Bengal, which shows an elephant and her calf fleeing a crowd throwing tar-soaked fireballs.
Sources: Newshub, January 2019: Shocking photos show Indian villagers hurling firebombs at elephants The Daily Star, 8 November 2017: Photo of burning elephant, calf wins top prize
Such heartbreaking cruelty.
ReplyDeleteThese people are the scum of the earth!
DeletePics are photoshopped and fake.... get over your hatred towards India based on fake websites
DeleteWe don’t hurt animals in India... that’s against our culture... and another reason why you see animals on roads etc.. coz they are sure enough to coexist with us
DeleteEven a half blind person can see all the pictures are photoshopped. All those spewing venom blaming the whole village or nation or community, calm down and use common sense.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't even thought about that until I saw your comment and it clicked thanks for pointing this out I forgot people do this shit to create hate and chaos
Deletewell, i think the solutin is to castrate the male indians, this way no more over population and rape in India
ReplyDeleteI wish your father was castrated, he wouldn’t have given birth to a moron
Delete