‘Hell is Here’ for elephants set on fire

A photo depicting an elephant and its calf fleeing after being set on fire wins a coveted photography award.

The 2017 Sanctuary’s Wildlife Photographer of the Year award winner: Picture Biplab Hazra

A photo of an adult elephant and its calf fleeing after being set on fire by flaming tar balls and fire crackers hurled at them by crowds of humans is this year’s winner of a coveted Asian photography award.

The 2017 Sanctuary’s Wildlife Awards drew over 5,000 entries from across Asia and is run by Sanctuary, an Indian wildlife conservation advocacy organisation which also publishes the magazine Sanctuary Asia.

Photographer Biplab Hazra won the 2017 Photographer of the Year award for the shocking image, titled “Hell is Here”. The photo was taken in the Jhargram district in the Indian state of West Bengal, which is home to around 800 wild elephants.

There is frequent violence against elephants in the region where the animals regularly destroy crops, trample property and occasionally kill people. Hazra told The New Indian Express that the villagers may not have meant to set the elephants alight and that local residents often use fire to deter the animals away from human settelments.

“The calf may not have been intentionally set on fire by the villagers living in the vicinity of the elephant corridor...,” he said. “but bursting crackers and throwing fireballs on elephant herds has been a common practice in this part of West Bengal.”

Sanctuary wrote on its Facebook page that the kind of violence inflicted upon elephants captured by the photo is “routine” in southern India. “The ignorance and bloodlust of mobs that attack herds for fun is compounded by the plight of those that actually suffer damage to land.” the organisation wrote.

Hazra told The New Indian Express the elephants survived the incident.