Winner (click here) of Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017 Biplab Hazra/Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017

November 7, 2017

An image (click here) of a baby elephant fleeing a mob that has just set it on fire has won top entry in a pan-Asian wildlife photography competition, the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Awards 2017.

Biplab Hazra's picture shows a calf on fire as it and an adult elephant run for their lives in eastern India.

Announcing the award, Sanctuary magazine said "this sort of humiliation... is routine".

The photo was taken in West Bengal, where human-elephant conflict is rife.

It's unclear what eventually happened to the two elephants in the award-winning picture, which was taken in Bankura district. (Pictured in the maps to the right.)

The district has often been in the news for human deaths caused by encounters with elephants.

The magazine's note accompanying the photograph explains that this was also a case of human-elephant conflict.

The note says a "crowd of jeering men" were flinging "flaming tar balls and crackers" at the two elephants when Biplab Hazra took the photograph.

He recalls the calf screaming in "confusion" as it fled.

"For these smart, gentle, social animals who have roamed the subcontinent for centuries, hell is now and here," he added.

The photograph has attracted a lot of attention on social media

Mainak Mazumder, who lives in Bankura, commented that villagers were responsible for "heavy habitat destruction" and that "elephants have been subjected to terrible abuses and tortures".

But, he said, elephants also have "wreaked havoc" by destroying crops, damaging farmland, and have "killed innocent people".

There was also a picture that preceded the one with the elephant calf. In award-winning picture, the female elephant still has her right foot on fire.

The Mayurjharna Elephant Reserve (click here) is the only elephant reserve in India. These are Indian elephants and not African elephants. In my opinion, the destruction of habitat is the same as pouching. If animals have no land to live on they will all be dead.

I am certain the photo was chosen because of the alarming reality of this conflict between men and elephants.

Everyone knows the passive nature of elephants until they are alarmed and then they protect themselves and their young. The problem in India with these elephants is the lack of devoted land enforced by the government to end the conflict.

Unfortunately, poaching and habitat loss is real in nearly every corner of the world. Valuing wildlife is important. Such values add to the quality of life and definition of compassion on a wider scale. But, these elephants have to live somewhere and they need land to do that.

The government of India obviously needs help in managing it's wildlife reserves and should turn to international organizations that can provide insight, methods of management and assist in ending this conflict. It is horrible. The elephants are not valued by the people. There needs to be education and understanding to the plight of the elephants. I am certain India does not want to create a situation where elephants are extinct in their country.

People need to be educated about the elephants, the preserve which is government sanctions and the very real danger in confronting this primarily docile animals. It is amazing, at times, to realize how much people do not understand their own problems. In the case of these elephants, it is obvious there is a great fear of them without understanding the animals at all. If all the villagers know is the confrontation, there can be no understanding except to end their existence.