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India: Youngsters attack elephants with sticks and stones

Chennai - Forest officials have booked three people for hurting the animals.

Barely a month after the Madurai bench of the Madras high court asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe into the poaching and killing of elephants in Tamil Nadu, videos surfaced on social media on Thursday, revealing youngsters teasing and attacking the creatures with stones and sticks.

The Tiruppur forest officials have booked three of them for hurting the elephants. According to Ganesh Ram, assistant conservator of forests, the youngsters took their cattle for grazing inside the Anamalai tiger reserve and came across two elephants and a calf. They began teasing the animals and then attacked them. “They committed this act without realising its seriousness,” he said. “When the elephant charged towards them, they managed to escape.”

Ganesh Raghunathan, a researcher of the Nature Conservation Foundation at Valparai, said harassment of elephants could result in changes in animal behaviour. “From my experience in understanding elephant behaviour, they should be given their space to avoid interactions with humans,” he said in a media interview. “Acts of cruelty, as seen in the video, will create animosity towards humans among elephants. As a result, there is a higher chance of innocent people getting attacked by elephants and the blame finally goes to the animals.”

Wildlife activists say that poachers are active across forests in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, killing animals including elephants. The Madras high court bench at Madurai had noted that elephant deaths were not limited to a few specific forest areas. “It is not a case of poaching for livelihood, but of an international trade with sadistic pleasure in creating art out of fellow living beings,” it added.