Anushka Sharma, Shraddha Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Randeep Hooda condemn killing of pregnant elephant in Kerala

Bollywood actors including Akshay Kumar, Varun Dhawan, Anushka Sharma, John Abraham, Dia Mirza, Shraddha Kapoor and Disha Patani on Wednesday condemned the inhuman treatment meted out to pregnant elephant in Kerala.

The elephant died after a local allegedly fed her a pineapple stuffed with firecrackers in Palakkad-Malappuram border in Kerala on 27 May.

Expressing shock over the tragic incident, the actors took to social media platforms and demanded stricter laws against animal cruelty.

Akshay Kumar put out the heart-wrenching picture of the dead body of the mother elephant, tied in strings after being pulled out from the water.

Akshay Kumar's tweet:

Maybe animals are less wild and humans less human. What happened with that #elephant is heartbreaking, inhumane and unacceptable! Strict action should be taken against the culprits. #AllLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/sOmUsL3Ayc

— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) June 3, 2020

Dhawan took to Instagram and wrote a long note alongside a heartfelt image to showcase the relationship between human beings and elephants. "They gave us food baby, to which the baby says, humans are so good," the image featuring an elephant with a baby inside her womb.The artwork was created by 'tedthestoner', which was later reposted by Dhawan.

Read Varun Dhawan's post below

View this post on Instagram

We pray to him and yet do this🙏 A pregnant elephant was fed cracker stuffed pineapple by unidentified people in Kerala which exploded in her mouth and damaged her jaw. She walked around the village and finally passed away standing in a river. We keep searching for monsters hoping they would be having the devil's horns on their heads. But look around you, the monsters walk beside you. This elephant was going to give birth 18-20 months later. Even after the elephant was injured, she did not crush a single home or hurt a single human being. She just stood in a river because of the excruciating pain and passed away without hurting a single soul. From anybody who throws stones at a stray dog to anybody hurting a living soul, choose one face. A lot of these animals trust human beings because they have been helped by them in the past. This is cruel beyond measure. When you lack empathy and kindness, you do not deserve to be called a human being. To hurt someone is not human. Just stricter laws won't help. We need a decent execution of the law too. Until the guilty are punished in the worst possible way, these wicked monsters will never fear the law. Though it's a difficult task, I hope they are able to find out the one who committed this crime and punish them accordingly. Artwork by Bratuti.

A post shared by Varun Dhawan (@varundvn) on Jun 3, 2020 at 2:36am PDT

Calling the violent act against the elephant "cruel beyond measure", Varun urged the authorities to catch the guilty and asked for their punishment. "Just stricter laws won't help. We need a decent execution of the law too. Until the guilty are punished in the worst possible way, these wicked monsters will never fear the law," he said.

Anushka Sharma too reposted the artwork and asked the Kerala Chief Minister to find the preparators and bring them to justice for the crime.

Here is Anushka Sharma's post

View this post on Instagram

#Repost @tedthestoner . We all would urge @cmokerala to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice for this heinous crime. • A pregnant elephant was fed cracker stuffed pineapple by unidentified people in Kerala which exploded in her mouth and damaged her jaw. She walked around the village and finally passed away standing in a river. We keep searching for monsters hoping they would be having the devil's horns on their heads. But look around you, the monsters walk beside you. This elephant was going to give birth 18-20 months later. Even after the elephant was injured, she did not crush a single home or hurt a single human being. She just stood in a river because of the excruciating pain and passed away without hurting a single soul. From anybody who throws stones at a stray dog to anybody hurting a living soul, choose one face. A lot of these animals trust human beings because they have been helped by them in the past. This is cruel beyond measure. When you lack empathy and kindness, you do not deserve to be called a human being. To hurt someone is not human. Just stricter laws won't help. We need a decent execution of the law too. Until the guilty are punished in the worst possible way, these wicked monsters will never fear the law. Though it's a difficult task, I hope they are able to find out the one who committed this crime and punish them accordingly. Artwork by Bratuti.

A post shared by ɐɯɹɐɥS ɐʞɥsnu∀ (@anushkasharma) on Jun 3, 2020 at 2:28am PDT

Disha Patani also urged the government to take strict actions.

This is truly heartbreaking. Hope the government takes strict against these people. #Elephants pic.twitter.com/4vdRMbzGah

— Disha Patani (@DishPatani) June 3, 2020

Sharing some heart-wrenching pictures of the dead elephant and its womb, John Abraham shared a post which showed a sketch of the last conversation between the mother elephant and baby in the womb, where the baby asks, " Amma, I will never be able to see humans?" To which the crying mom says, "You won't regret baby."

Shame on us !!!! Ashamed to be human. @vijayanpinarayi @CMOKerala @PrakashJavdekar @moefcc @ntca_india #WeAreTheVirus #WildAnimals #SaveAnimals #CrueltyFree #SaveElephants pic.twitter.com/B7KuOZMDUV

— John Abraham (@TheJohnAbraham) June 3, 2020

Arjun Kapoor wrote that human race has "failed". "We have failed as a race. We can't keep the earth safe and protect it, we can't respect the other species that exist with us. We are all failures nothing and no one can argue otherwise. We will lose their trust, we will suffer and pay. It is inevitable," he posted.

View this post on Instagram

We have failed as a race. We can't keep the earth safe & protect it, we can't respect the other species that exist with us. We are all failures nothing & no one can argue otherwise. We will lose their trust, we will suffer & pay. It is inevitable... Original Artist - @karanacharya.kk

A post shared by Arjun Kapoor (@arjunkapoor) on Jun 3, 2020 at 11:14am PDT

Shraddha Kapoor urged people to sign a petition to impose stricter laws against animal cruelty. The 'Aashiqui 2' star put out the petition on Twitter and asked for 'Justice for our Voiceless friends.' "We need stricter laws against animal cruelty. It's HIGH time. Please sign this petition," she wrote along with the post.

Shraddha reposted the picture featuring the conversation between the mother elephant and the baby inside her womb on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A pregnant elephant was fed cracker stuffed pineapple by unidentified people in Kerala which exploded in her mouth and damaged her jaw. She walked around the village and finally passed away standing in a river. We keep searching for monsters hoping they would be having the devil's horns on their heads. But look around you, the monsters walk beside you. From anybody who throws stones at a stray dog to anybody hurting a living soul, choose one face. A lot of these animals trust human beings because they have been helped by them in the past. This is cruel beyond measure. When you lack empathy and kindness, you do not deserve to be called a human being. To hurt someone is not human. Just stricter laws won't help. We need a decent execution of the law too. Until the guilty are punished in the worst possible way, these wicked monsters will never fear the law. Though it's a difficult task, I hope they are able to find out the one who committed this crime and punish them accordingly. Artwork by Bratuti. Post reposted from @tedthestoner

A post shared by Shraddha (@shraddhakapoor) on Jun 2, 2020 at 11:47pm PDT

Dia Mirza and Sonali Bendre too condemned the incident.

Petition · Kerala Forest Department - www​.​forest​.​kerala​.​gov​.​in: Criminal charge against those who killed the pregnant elephant · https://t.co/aB3W7tCsnZ

I have signed this petition, i hope you will 🙏🏻 https://t.co/k9QoqMFHDl

— Dia Mirza (@deespeak) June 3, 2020

Just when I thought nothing could shock me anymore, I came across this terrible news... how could they do this??? This is the karma humanity has to face.... no wonder we are going through all this 💔 Where is the humanity?#Elephant
Art by: Bratuti pic.twitter.com/lJjNHqMkD0

— Sonali Bendre Behl (@iamsonalibendre) June 3, 2020

Randeep Hooda tagged Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, asking them to take strict action against the culprits.

An act most #inhumane to will fully feed a pineapple full of fire crackers to friendly wild pregnant #Elephant is just unacceptable..strict action should be taken against the culprits sir 🙏🏽@vijayanpinarayi @CMOKerala @PrakashJavdekar @moefcc @ntca_india https://t.co/ittFQogkQV

— Randeep Hooda (@RandeepHooda) June 2, 2020

Earlier, the Silent Valley National Park Wildlife Officer had informed that the elephant was seen roaming around in the private area of the forest on 23 May.

"When one of our staff members went to see the elephant, it was observed that a wound in the lower jaw area was exposed. Later, for at least 24 hours the animal was trying to look for water. On May 24, we received information that the animal has come into river Velliyar," the wildlife officer said.

The officials said that a veterinarian was called as the elephant was weak and not eating anything and was on a liquid diet.

The wildlife officer said that they later planned to take the elephant out of the river but by then she had collapsed.
The officer informed that two doctors are at the spot to carry out the post-mortem, after which the carcass will be burnt.

(With inputs from Asian News International)