Target: Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Indian Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Goal: Demand harsher penalties for villagers who harm elephants.
A baby elephant was severely burned and terrorized after it was struck with a flaming bar of tar in the east Indian state of West Bengal. An award-winning photograph captures the exact moment when photographer Biplab Hazra says a mob of “jeering men” threw the balls of tar and firecrackers at the calf and his or her mother, in an apparent attempt to drive them away. This is only the latest in a series of violent conflicts between elephants and humans in the region that must be addressed.
Elephants in India are in crisis as their natural habitat dwindles, while farmlands and urban areas expand. As a result, herds of wandering elephants frequently enter populated areas and cause damage or threaten human lives. Attacks by mobs, such as the one shown in the photograph, are seen as retribution for the losses the elephants are said to cause.
There is no excusing the vile behavior shown in the photograph. No animal deserves to be burned or tortured, especially as the result of human-caused problems like habitat destruction. Sign this petition to demand that Indian officials enact harsher penalties for causing harm to elephants and do more to protect what remaining land these creatures have available to them.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear Minister Vardhan,
A photograph showing a mob attacking an elephant mother and her calf underlines the growing crisis that elephants face in India. As their forest habitats are destroyed, these creatures are forced to wander over large areas to find food and water, bringing them into conflict with humans when they enter populated areas. There have been many reports of humans torturing and hurting elephants in an effort to keep them away, and this photograph is disturbing evidence that even young calves are being targeted by violent mobs.
Elephants will continue to enter villages and towns as long as they cannot find enough food or water in their natural habitats. Therefore, I urge you to do more to conserve their remaining habitat and to enact harsher penalties against those who would cause them harm.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Biplab Hazra via Instagram
This is so sad! Omg, how inhumane! WTH is wrong with people? This poor baby! I hope it comes back on whoever did this ten fold! So, so sad…….?. Please God, help our poor animals Lord! Please!!!!!
If only I had the means to bring those helpless animals to safety, I would spend my life doing so. Dick Martin Hesperia California.
This is so sad there are many places in the workd where wild animals coexist beside people the people just have to care and make a place for them thus is so wrong these people should be burned n see if they like it. These animals were here first they deserve care and respect vefore they are extinct.