Pregnant Wild Elephant Dies in River after Villager Feeds Her Cracker-filled Pineapple in Kerala

[diga]

^ Menaka Gandhi's introduction in the above article starts with BJP leader.. intentional isnt it?

[Clarke]

13 hours ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

Land-sparing for forests is possible only when agricultural productivity is high.  India is way behind in adopting high-yield, modern genetics and ag practices.  Blame the eNGOs and nationalist movements pushing for romanticized, unscientific, unproductive and antiquated agricultural practices.

 

https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/stirring-up-the-truth-about-zbnf/article29620843.ece

 

  

The ground reality in India is such that high yield is a problem in itself. When supply is high, prices crash and farmers aren't able to cover costs, forget profits. The govt then needs to bail out in case of surplus production by means of support price and/or loan waivers and cash handouts. The financial problem remains the same when agriculture is hit with weather or other issues. 

 

Yield is mostly a symptom here, 56% of population engaged in agri with mostly small land holdings and low productivity. Agri can be sorted out when the land is consolidated, science and tech brings great yields which are feasible on larger holdings with investment and the labor is deployed in industrial growth. With our enormous population (a prime cause for farm-forest dispute) and increasing automation, all of this seems difficult. 

[FischerTal]

Kerala minister says it happened in Pallakad not Mammalapuram.

[Gollum]

2 minutes ago, FischerTal said:

Kerala minister says it happened in Pallakad not Mammalapuram.

Bhai Mamallapuram is in Tamil Nadu south of Chennai, ancient Pallava town famous for rock cut temples and monuments......where Modi took XI on a cultural tour last year. Also known as Mahabalipuram.

 

Malappuram is in Kerala. 

[FischerTal]

37 minutes ago, Gollum said:

Bhai Mamallapuram is in Tamil Nadu south of Chennai, ancient Pallava town famous for rock cut temples and monuments......where Modi took XI on a cultural tour last year. Also known as Mahabalipuram.

 

Malappuram is in Kerala. 

yeah sorry I mixed up both. but he was basically saying maneka Gandhi was lying.

[vayuu1]

On 6/3/2020 at 3:50 AM, Ankit_sharma03 said:

pregnant wild elephant in Kerala's Silent Valley Forest fell victim to an act of human cruelty after a pineapple filled with powerful crackers offered by a man exploded in her mouth when she chomped on it, a senior forest officer said on Tuesday.

"Her jaw was broken and she was unable to eat after she chewed the pineapple and it exploded in her mouth. It is certain that she was offered the pineapple filled with crackers to eliminate her," said Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Surendrakumar.

The incident was reported from the fringe areas of the Silent Valley in Attappadi. Surendrakumar said the elephant died at Velliyar River in

Malappuram district on May 27. He said the post-mortem revealed that the pachyderm was pregnant.

"I have directed the forest officials to nab the culprit. We will punish him for 'hunting' the elephant," he said.

The issue of the pachyderm's tragic death came to light after Mohan Krishnan, a forest officer, posted an emotional note on his Facebook page, narrating the death of the elephant in the waters of the Velliyar River.

"When we saw her she was standing in the river, with her head dipped in the water. She had a sixth sense that she was going to die. She took the Jalasamadhi in the river in a standing position", Krishnan, who was deputed to bring the elephant back to the shore, wrote.

He also posted the photo of the elephant standing in the river water.

 

Link https://www.news18.com/news/india/pregnant-wild-elephant-dies-in-river-after-villager-feeds-her-cracker-filled-pineapple-in-kerala-2650239.html

There is no forgiveness for this sin, biggest sin in Hinduism, killing a garbhvati. 

[coffee_rules]

Hinduphobia exhibit A

 

 

[BacktoCricaddict]

15 hours ago, Clarke said:

The ground reality in India is such that high yield is a problem in itself. When supply is high, prices crash and farmers aren't able to cover costs, forget profits. The govt then needs to bail out in case of surplus production by means of support price and/or loan waivers and cash handouts. The financial problem remains the same when agriculture is hit with weather or other issues. 

 

Yield is mostly a symptom here, 56% of population engaged in agri with mostly small land holdings and low productivity. Agri can be sorted out when the land is consolidated, science and tech brings great yields which are feasible on larger holdings with investment and the labor is deployed in industrial growth. With our enormous population (a prime cause for farm-forest dispute) and increasing automation, all of this seems difficult. 

Time to adopt Sharad Joshi's recommendations.  

 

Also, if the govt won't approve superior genetics, farmers take matters into their own hands:

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/maharashtra-farmers-kharif-non-approved-gm-seeds-6439395/

 

Farmers in Maharashtra are gearing up to sow non-approved Genetically Modified (GM) seeds of crops like cotton, maize, soyabean, and brinjal this season. Led by the Shetkari Sanghatana, this movement will be undertaken across the state, with farmers setting up boards on their fields proclaiming the nature of their crop.

Anil Ghanwat, president of the Shektari Sanghtana, said this movement is an extension of their ongoing one to make technology freely available for the farm sector. Last year, the Sanghatana had led thousands of farmers in Akola district in a civil disobedience movement, which saw farmers sowing the non-approved herbicide-tolerant (Ht) variant of GM (Bt) cotton. Akola district authorities had filed FIRs against the organisers in this regard, but the state had seen farmers openly sowing this variant.

Access to technology has always been a major demand for the farmers’ union, whose founder, the late Sharad Joshi, was an ardent votary of GM technology. Back in the 1990s, Joshi had led perhaps what was the first of its kind mass movement to demand access to technology in the farm sector. Bt cotton, the commercial release of which was approved by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in 2002, remains the only GM crop permitted in the country.

[Real McCoy]

On 6/3/2020 at 11:54 AM, Clarke said:

This may have been unintentional. Another article said that the stuffed pineapples are used to prevent the wild boars from damaging the crops. That in itself sounds extreme, although living in a city I can't point a finger to the challenges rural folks face. 

 

The elephant strayed outside the forest in search of food and ended up consuming the pineapple. Quite tragic how she suffered for days before she ventured out again from the forest and was spotted by forest officers who did make genuine efforts to help her.

That could be the case but its very tragic to hear about this

[Real McCoy]

7 hours ago, BacktoCricaddict said:

Time to adopt Sharad Joshi's recommendations.  

 

Also, if the govt won't approve superior genetics, farmers take matters into their own hands:

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/maharashtra-farmers-kharif-non-approved-gm-seeds-6439395/

 

Farmers in Maharashtra are gearing up to sow non-approved Genetically Modified (GM) seeds of crops like cotton, maize, soyabean, and brinjal this season. Led by the Shetkari Sanghatana, this movement will be undertaken across the state, with farmers setting up boards on their fields proclaiming the nature of their crop.

Anil Ghanwat, president of the Shektari Sanghtana, said this movement is an extension of their ongoing one to make technology freely available for the farm sector. Last year, the Sanghatana had led thousands of farmers in Akola district in a civil disobedience movement, which saw farmers sowing the non-approved herbicide-tolerant (Ht) variant of GM (Bt) cotton. Akola district authorities had filed FIRs against the organisers in this regard, but the state had seen farmers openly sowing this variant.

Access to technology has always been a major demand for the farmers’ union, whose founder, the late Sharad Joshi, was an ardent votary of GM technology. Back in the 1990s, Joshi had led perhaps what was the first of its kind mass movement to demand access to technology in the farm sector. Bt cotton, the commercial release of which was approved by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) in 2002, remains the only GM crop permitted in the country.

GM foods are no good either. If even an insect won't eat the produce, you can imagine the implications on humans. Of course, humans can eat it without any side effects immiediately but will get new diseases like cancer in the future. This is the real motive behind GM foods. Google monsanto, a company that used to manufacture weed killer is now the ones with GM seeds. All these local politicians and farmers association heads are paid by them via NGOs and sometimes even direct bribes. They have offices in India and they even planted some GM brinjals against the Supreme Court order.

This event is tragic but don't come up with this GM sh1t as a solution. There are better ways to solve this. Keep wild animals away from humans and that is the best we can do to protect both species.

[rkt.india]

On 6/3/2020 at 7:59 PM, Gollum said:

 

Happened in Malappuram, doubt they worship Lord Ganesh. But what do you expect from a Bhatt?

 

 Gods are male, goddesses are female. But like males aren't Gods, females too aren't godesses. Just human beings. Same goes for elephants and monkeys. Just animals.

Edited June 5, 2020 by rkt.india

[Stan AF]

This didn't happen in Malappuram.

[Gollum]

Confusion over whether it happened in another district, some sources still say it died in Velliyar river in Malappuram, others say Palakkad, might be border or latter. Looks like target was wild pig/boar but elephant ate it. Nevertheless a pretty brutal way to kill animals and not foolproof. Kerala must do better, too many protected animals die because of these traps.  I am sure human-wildlife conflicts happen in other states but they must be doing better. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Gollum

[Gollum]

In God’s own country, a horror story of wildlife killing unfolds

Quote

Kerala may be a great state to be born in as a human—it’s turning out to be a hellish place for elephants and other wildlife.

A recent gruesome killing of a pregnant wild elephant using a pineapple stuffed with firecrackers has triggered national outrage over how wild animals are being treated in the state that calls itself God’s own country.

Forest official Mohan Krishnan posted an emotional note on Facebook, recalling how he and his colleagues found the elephant corpse near the buffer zone of Silent Valley in Palakkad district on 27 May.

She was hunched over on the banks of the Velliyar river, knees bent, head dipped in water—the last desperate act of an animal rendered immobile by pain days after the bomb exploded in her mouth.

The act of cruelty is one of many such horror stories surrounding wild animals across Kerala, one of India’s greenest states and home to a deepening people versus parks conflict.

On Wednesday, it emerged that another female elephant met with a similar fate in April in Kollam district. Her jaw was smashed by a firecracker-stuffed pineapple, killing her.

Once at the heart of the state’s traditional economy and culture, care of elephants and other wildlife has become a victim of prospering forest buffer zones.

“Such bombings have become a common practice to kill wild boars. It may be purposely used against the elephant, or she may have become an accidental victim," said O.P. Nammeer, an expert on elephant conservation and professor of wildlife at Kerala Agricultural University.

“The major reason for such cases is that the natural habitat of wild animals is shrinking. Kerala is robustly protecting its reserve forests. But closer to buffer zones, encroachments are increasing, as farmers extend their cultivation unchecked."

Farmers in Kerala have taken to cultivating on fields that have been traditionally used by elephants for grazing.

Official data shows that man-animal conflicts increased in Kerala from 6,022 cases to 7,229 between 2016 and 2018, according to a 2019 news report.

“People are getting into conflicts and they resort to different mitigation methods— they put up electric fences, build trenches, or become more brutal and use a crude bomb," said Nammeer. “Cruelty apart, it is illegal. These are animals protected under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972."

The deciding factor today is the economy, not culture, he said.

“The new-age farmers are rubber barons who purchase land in fringe areas, because it is cheap. They are businessmen first, farmers second. They are not attached to the forest buffer zone in any emotional way," he said.

Conservationists cite the examples of the Parambikulam tiger reserve forest in Palakkad district. Close to it, some 200 tribal people are now cultivating rice, banana and sugarcane, but without harming wildlife.

“In market-intensive farmlands, every penny counts. And a giant mammal is a stumbling block to their ease of doing business," said Nammeer.

Public protests and rallies against tigers and elephants are now commonplace in thickly forested and farm-tourism hotspots such as Wayanad and Idukki.

Protests against wildlife conservation have also grown after the topic came to the forefront with the Gadgil Committee report in the last decade. Kerala rejected ecologist Madhav Gadgil’s 2011 report for eco-restoration of the Western Ghats after raging protests that criticized it as biased against development.

“The encroachment lobby has acquired an ideological upper hand in Kerala. When a case like this comes up, people will talk about conservation. After that, everybody forgets. Unless conservation becomes part of the political agenda, our wildlife cannot be saved," said a wildlife expert and senior journalist K.A. Shaji.

Add to this mix the nearly impossible legal ways to resolve the man-animal conflict, he said. “As per the existing law, the killing of wild boar, whose numbers have surged ahead and largely account for a big chunk of the conflict-related cases, should only take place with a single gunshot, whereas getting a gun itself is a laborious process," said Shaji.

“The presence of a forest official and a conservation activist, which Kerala does not have enough, is a must for such killings. The dead boar should then be subjected to postmortem and then set to fire and buried in a deep pit. In return for all of these troubles, the farmer’s incentive is only a ₹500 reward," he said.

“Following laws are far more expensive, while making a crude bomb is cheap and accessible, even if that puts him on the wrong side of the law. But in the forests, who is going to know? As a result, the first ‘legal’ killing of a wild boar based on the order, issued in 2011, happened only last week," said Shaji.

LINK

[Gollum]

 

TOI journalist, is this necessary?

[coffee_rules]

[coffee_rules]

 

[Gollum]

26 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

 

 

Abdul Kareem, Riyasuddin and Wilson are Ganesh bhakts. These Brothelwood scumbags I tell you, Bhatt family is the worst. 

[Gollum]

55 minutes ago, coffee_rules said:

Amazing foresight, main accused is an Abdul. 

Edited June 5, 2020 by Gollum

[Gollum]