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The government of West Bengal must immediately launch an investigation into the killing of an adult elephant after its back was pierced with a burning spear on August 15, the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO) demanded on Wednesday.

HT reported on Monday that the elephant died in West Bengal's Jhargram after a mob pierced her with a burning spear, hours after another pachyderm allegedly killed a resident on the outskirts of the town, animal rights groups said, underscoring the escalating human-elephant conflict in the region and the complexity involved in controlling such situations. A group of hulla (elephant hunters) was reportedly called in by the forest department to hunt the herd. They carried burning spears.

“The West Bengal Forest Department must immediately set up a committee of experts on human-elephant conflict mitigation, including NGOs working on the ground in the state and other states where successful interventions have been taken, as well as other agencies. West Bengal must also dissolve all Hulla committees until a new protocol is implemented, drawn up by experts trained in conflict mitigation,” FIAPO said.

“The human-elephant conflict is entirely due to bad policies that ignore the interests of both humans and animals – although both can certainly coexist. The daily elephant incursions on the ground have turned into war-like scenarios. It seems as though elephants and humans are now at war with each other – and the recent brutal killing of the wild elephant is a bloody, unfortunate reality that has once again left the state forest department with blood on its hands,” said Alok Hisarwala, lawyer, founder of the Centre for Research on Animal Rights and trustee of FIAPO, in a statement.

Hulla groups, controlled by the state forest authorities, are said to use drums and other non-violent means to drive away elephants. “But in this case, the crowd threw burning iron spears at the elephants, one of which pierced the elephant's back. A widely circulated video shows the elephant in agony with the burning spear protruding from its back. In the video, a child can be heard telling his father, 'Please let her go, she is in pain.'” The elephant succumbed to his injuries the next day,” FIAPO said in a statement.

In April 2023, another video emerged, also from South Bengal, showing a Hulla group chasing away a herd of elephants with burning torches, sharp spears and firecrackers.

The use of burning spears is a violation of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling that specifically banned the use of nails and spears. “The failure of the forest department to find humane solutions is leading to the deaths of humans and elephants alike,” FIAPO said, adding that there is no doubt that significant human-elephant conflicts occur in South Bengal and are of concern. The 2018 Supreme Court ruling acknowledged that the conflict situation is difficult to manage given South Bengal's topography, with its paddy fields and other crops that attract elephants. The top court ordered that nearly 60% of the vacancies in the state forest department be filled so that the hulla parties can be managed by trained personnel.

The Supreme Court order took note of concerns raised in the guidelines on managing human-elephant conflicts issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Climate Change on October 6, 2017, which stated that “Anti-Predation Squads (ADS)… require a high level of coordination between departments. However, the way they are often implemented is not systematic and lacks standard operating procedures. There is great chaos in the activities of the ADS and local gangs get involved, which reduces their effectiveness. Sometimes shooting into the ground near the elephants is used to drive them towards the forest. Elephants, including calves, are also poked with iron spears to drive them away.” The events of August 15 confirmed precisely these fears, FIAPO said.