Smriti Irani: Elephant Killing, A Matter Of Deep Concern

Union Minister for Textiles, Smriti Irani slammed the local administration in Kerala for the brutal killing of an elephant which sparked widespread outrage. Irani told a television channel that it is a matter of deep concern if killing elephants is a trend. The Union Minister also questioned as to why forest officials in the state allowed such incidents.

BJP MP Maneka Gandhi told the television channel, News18 that the act of feeding a cracker-filled pineapple to the elephant was a deliberate one. She said that it was not a cracker but a bomb which explodes on contact. It was such a bomb which killed the pregnant elephant, she remarked.

Maneka Gandhi said that this is not the first such case of elephant-killing in the southern state. The BJP MP told the TV channel that 600 elephants die in the southern state of Kerala due to unnatural causes.

Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Prakash Javadekar said that the Centre took a serious view of the killing of the pregnant elephant and that it had ordered an independent probe into the incident.

The Kerala government has already registered an FIR and is probing the elephant's killing. Investigating officials are reported to have told the media that they have some suspects whose identity they do not wish to divulge at this stage of the probe.