A first suspect is confessed. Indian police have arrested a plantation worker and are actively looking for two others as part of an investigation into the death of a pregnant elephant killed last week by a fruit trapped with firecrackers, authorities said.
The case caused great emotion in the country: Bollywood stars, sportsmen and business leaders expressed their dismay on social networks.
The wild elephant ventured on May 27 in a village in the state of Kerala (South), where she ate the fruit filled with firecrackers, which exploded in her mouth.
After several hours of agony, she succumbed to her injuries in a river. The trapped fruit is a technique commonly used by villagers in the region to protect their crops from wild animals, driven from their natural habitat by deforestation.
Explosive coconuts
The arrested man, identified as P. Wilson, "confessed to using trapped coconuts to target wild animals" who venture into his rubber plantation, said Surendra Kumar, wildlife protection officer at Kerala. Two other suspects are on the run, he added.
The three men made several "explosive coconuts" in the second week of May, which they placed near the plantation boundaries. A similar incident was reported last month in an area near Kerala.
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The three face up to seven years in prison for killing an elephant, a protected species in India.
The affair took a political turn when several Hindu right-wing officials took the opportunity to falsely accuse social media of the Muslim community of being responsible. According to them, Muslims specifically target elephants because this animal is the embodiment of Ganesh, a Hindu deity.
