A horrific prizewinning photo has shed light on the way residents of West Bengal, India, have been dealing with their Asian elephant population.
The photo was taken by hobby photographer Biplap Hazra. It shows a baby elephant calf and its mother, lit on fire by an angry mob in West Bengal. The two majestic creatures are attempting to flee the scene, the baby’s face exhibiting the telltale signs of horror and pain.
Hazra, a hobby photographer who works as a brick-kiln owner by trade, told the New Indian Express (via National Geographic), “I had never seen such an incident in 14 years of my wildlife photography career.”
In his entry to the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards, Hazra described the scene, writing: “[The] 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.”
India, as a whole, houses at least half of the world’s Asian elephant population, according to National Geographic. These beautiful creatures are considered to be endangered— mainly as a result of humans destroying and/or fragmenting their natural habitat.
For example, National Geographic reports that in India, 80% of the elephants’ natural traveling paths have been disturbed by human settlements.
In the state of West Bengal, an area that roughly 500 Asian elephants call home, the relationship between the animals and humans are particularly strained.
The forests of West Bengal are littered with tea houses and human settlements, and with humans and elephants living so close together, things have become dangerous for both groups. For example, the Times of India (via National Geographic) reported that 18 people in West Bengal were killed by elephants within the first 9 months of 2015; elephants, for their part, often also die of electrocution from bumping into the many displays of electric wiring.
This photo, submitted to the same contest as Hazra’s, also shows the disturbing interactions between the elephant and human societies of West Bengal.
Photographer Locha Deb explains that this railway, the Buxa Tiger Reserve railway, has caused over 60 wild elephant deaths in the past decade. Deb’s photo received an honorable mention in the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards (the same competition in which Hazra won first place).
Elephants are extremely intelligent and empathetic creatures, and as National Geographic has stated, “The horror of what is happening to them is surely compounded in their minds by the empathy they feel for one another— an emotion that scientists have at last been able to demonstrate experimentally in [the species]”.
With death and tragedy becoming commonplace for both humans and elephants in West Bengal, M. Ananda Kumar, a scientist at the Nature Conservation Foundation, says education is essential.
“We need to get across to people that these large animals need space. We have to create awareness that violent behaviors would only lead to tragic incidents.”
Photographer Hazra has since confirmed (to the relief of animal lovers everywhere) that the little calf in his prize-winning photo did, in fact, survive the attack. Unfortunately, however, there are many others that still need our help.
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