(Biplab Harza/Sanctuary Wildlife Photograph Awards)
An image of two elephants fleeing a mob that set them on fire in eastern India highlights the ongoing human-elephant conflicts in the region.
The photograph, named “Hell is Here,” was taken by Biplab Hazra and was named the winner of the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017.
The image shows a calf on fire as it and an adult elephant run for their lives — as a crowd of “jeering” people throw “flaming tar balls” and firecrackers at the pair.
According to the Sanctuary Asia Foundation, these type of scenes are common in the Bankura district of West Bengal.
“The ignorance and bloodlust of mobs that attack herds for fun, is compounded by the plight of those that actually suffer damage to land, life and property by wandering elephants and the utter indifference of the central and state government to recognize the crisis that is at hand,” the magazine said in a note accompanying the photograph.
India is home to over 70 percent of the global population of Asian elephants, but the region has often been in the news for human deaths caused by encounters with elephants.
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SOURCE: Fox News, The Associated Press
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