Palakkad police forms SIT to probe pregnant elephant's death, CM Vijayan alleges 'organised campaign' against Kerala

Amid outrage over the death of a pregnant wild elephant in Kerala's Palakkad, the district police said a special investigation team has been formed under a DSP-rank officer to probe the matter. 

Earlier, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said three suspects are under the scanner of teams probing the death of the elephant. Vijayan assured that all concerns raised will not go in vain and justice will prevail and the culprits brought to book.

According to reports, the 15-year-old elephant is suspected to have consumed a pineapple filled with firecrackers which exploded in the animal's mouth and it died standing in Velliyar River about a week later.

After a massive outrage from the across the country, personnel of Kerala police and the forest department's Crime Investigation Team visited the spot and collected evidence. 

The probe is mainly focused to Mannarkkad area where cultivation of crops is being done by the people.

The postmortem report of the animal has revealed that the wounds were there for two weeks. The report said the explosion fractured the bones of the elephant and caused a lot of damage to the mouth and she was not able to take food for days. The report said that the elephant died of choking due to water getting filled in her lungs.

Many tried to rescue the injured mammoth her but all in vain. 

The investigating team said they still trying to find out the real cause of the tragic incident. Preliminary reports point to the use of explosive-filled pineapple usually used as traps to kill wild animals. 

The focus of the investigation is private plantations near the Silent Valley bufferzone. They are also investigating the source of the explosive material.

Earlier, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said it is not in Indian culture to feed firecrackers and kill and that the government would not leave any stone unturned to bring the culprit to book.

"Central Government has taken a very serious note of the killing of an elephant in Mallapuram, #Kerala. We will not leave any stone unturned to investigate properly and nab the culprit(s). This is not an Indian culture to feed fire crackers and kill (sic)," he said in a tweet.

BJP MP and former union minister Maneka Gandhi also tweeted that Malappuram is known for "its intense criminal activity" specially "with regard to animals."

However, both the leaders made the mistake of misidentifying the location to be in Mallapuram while the elephant was found dead in Palakkad district. 

On this, Vijayan alleged that there was an "organised campaign" at the national level against Kerala and Malappuram district. 

"There is an organised campaign against Kerala and Malappuram at national level.... It is really unfortunate that certain people are using this incident to tarnish the image of the state and Malappuram in particular.

"In spite of having clarified that the incident took place in Palakkad and not in Malappuram as being propagated, people including central ministers are still not willing to correct the mistake. It now looks like they are doing it deliberately. This is not acceptable and any efforts to spread hatred using this incident will not be tolerated," he told reporters at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram.