# This picture will break your heart. Elephants set on fire :( **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 10, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163 "2017-11-10T00:06:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/1 "2017-11-10T00:06:27Z")
[Hell is Here](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/11/08/the-horror-elephants-face-in-india-in-one-heartbreaking-photo/?utm_term=.fbffb259d9d1) won the Sanctuary Wildlife Photography Award, but I wish I could unsee it. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/2 "2017-11-10T00:24:52Z")
No way in hell am I clicking on that. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/3 "2017-11-10T00:30:11Z")
People are assholes. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/4 "2017-11-10T01:51:16Z")
I think this thread is better suited for MPSIMS as expressed, which is not to suggest the topic is either mundane or pointless. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/5 "2017-11-10T01:55:43Z")
I’m with **Chefguy**. I’m not clicking on it. Just knowing it exists is bad enough. As a follow up, I would be interested in the story of what happened, if you know that. Who did it, were they caught, that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/6 "2017-11-10T02:08:08Z")
From the article: > [@](#): > > [The] calf screams in confusion and fear as the fire licks at her feet. Flaming tar balls and crackers fly through the air to a soundtrack of human laughter and shouts. 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. So, people throw fire balls at elephants and laugh. What in the ever loving fuck? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/7 "2017-11-10T02:49:53Z")
I’m no elephant expert, but I’m guessing he’ll be okay. Pretty thick skin, and all. But that is sure a dick move. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/8 "2017-11-10T03:47:37Z")
I hope you are right. Others have commented that the tar fire bombs lodged at elephants were like napalm and would sear through their thick skin. I spared you guys the video, which is even more heart wrenching, as the baby elephant screams in pain and fear as his back legs are on fire and his mother is barelling through the crowd to get the fuck out of dodge. The laughter and jeers of the locals in the background are soul destroying. And **Sunny Daze** , the story is awful on all sides. The people are living at the poverty level, just trying to survive and are reproducing at alarming rates. So there is a major competition for resources. The people want to eat & have a habitat and so do the elephants. It is a horrid competition for resources & the elephants will clearly lose. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/9 "2017-11-10T03:59:47Z")
Just can’t click on it. I’ve seen it all but this one is out of bounds. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2017, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/10 "2017-11-10T11:12:28Z")
That’s just horrid. I did click on the link, but it’s paywalled. A non-paywalled version of the story is on the [Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/nov/07/photo-of-elephant-and-calf-fleeing-fire-throwing-mob-wins-top-prize). ---
**Author:** ![GusNSpot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gusnspot/32/436_2.png) [@GusNSpot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GusNSpot)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/11 "2017-11-11T01:26:04Z")
This is one of the reasons I do not believe in the sanctity of human life above all other life. Why do the people of India think maximum population production is a good thing? Even if there was a good reason to exterminate one particular life form, this joy in evilness and excessive cruelty is wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/12 "2017-11-11T01:39:45Z")
Too bad there were [no](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nne4gjakuMI) [rhinos](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ81dcD1N8s) [around](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=353649). ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2017, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-picture-will-break-your-heart-elephants-set-on-fire/801163/13 "2017-11-11T03:04:26Z")
> [@GusNSpot](#): > > This is one of the reasons I do not believe in the sanctity of human life above all other life. > > Why do the people of India think maximum population production is a good thing? > > Even if there was a good reason to exterminate one particular life form, this joy in evilness and excessive cruelty is wrong. I agree with you. Sometimes I wish the plague would return to decimate the human population. The destruction that we as a species visit on the rest of the animal kingdom is sickening.