Elephants are falling victim to 'Hakka Patas'.

Curse of Hakka Patas.

A hungry baby elephant was wandering through the forest, searching for something to eat. It saw a pumpkin in the middle of the scrubland. It looked tempting. The baby elephant tries to taste the pumpkin. It took the pumpkin by its trunk and put it inside its mouth. When it crunched the pumpkin, it suddenly blew inside its mouth. When the poor animal came to its senses, there was an unbearable pain in the place where its mouth used to be.

The baby elephant’s agony multiplied when it started feeling hunger and thirst. It moved to a water hole to quench its thirst thinking that it will stop this unbearable throbbing in its head. It took water from the water hole to its trunk and tried to put it inside its mouth, only to find that there was no mouth where it used to be. Apart from the great pain experienced due to wounds, the animal suffered further due to thirst and hunger. Unable to have food or water, the baby elephant starved to death.

Unlike other methods used to control or kill animals considered as a threat to farming, the use of Hakka Patas is considered inhumane because the animals suffer and most often don’t die instantly. Hakka Patas is an explosive device made locally and hidden inside animal fodder by irate farmers or angry villagers as a method to protect themselves and their crop from wild animals. According to Dr. Fernando elephants aren’t the only animals to get killed by Hakka Patas. “Cattle and wild boar also get wounded by this. All these animals get wounded in their jaws. Either they die on the spot or starve to death because they have no mouth to eat,” he explained.

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