The photo of two elephants, a mother elephant, and her calf, trying to escape fire won this year’s photography award.
The photograph named ‘Hell is Here’ taken by photographer Biplab Hazra was selected for the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017 on November 5, Fox News reported.
The image shows a mother elephant with her ears angled forward to avoid the crowd, followed by her calf screaming as her feet are getting burnt. The description with the image said the animals were set on fire by the crowd in the photo. “Flaming tar balls and crackers fly through the air to a soundtrack of human laughter and shouts,” the accompanying note read.
The note read that such instances are not uncommon 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 description said.
Home to more than 70 percent of the population of Asian elephants in the world, this region of India is often in news for fatal encounters between elephants and humans, the note added.
“In the Bankura district of West Bengal this sort of humiliation of pachyderms is routine, as it is in the other elephant-range states of Assam, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and more,” the description said. “India is the world’s stronghold for the Asian elephant and boasts over 70 per cent of the global population of the species. But this achievement rings hollow as vital elephant habitats and routes continue to be ravaged, and human-elephant conflict escalates to a fatal degree.
According to a media report, about 29 people were killed last year due to conflicts between elephants and humans. Since March this year, the government officials have started issuing SMS alerts to intimate people about the movement of the animals to avoid encounters, the write-up said.