Indian Forest Service officer Parveen Kaswan tweeted a heart-wrenching video of a herd of elephants in a funeral procession for a dead calf and the reaction, aside from heartbreak, was a clear message that humans can do better.
“This will move you!” Kaswan writes on Twitter. “Funeral procession of the weeping elephants carrying dead body of the child elephant. The family just don’t want to leave the baby.”
Among the replies to his post:
“This is heart rending. There’s a lot that humans can learn from animals.”
“Compassion, love and togetherness. What they have and we humans lack in this age.”
“These so-called animals have more emotions than many so-called human beings in today’s world.”
“They have more ‘humanity’ than humans.”
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The video shows an adult elephant carrying a dead calf across the road followed by the rest of the herd, as onlookers witness the scene from afar. The elephants stop and rest before moving on again with the calf body being carried away.
Kaswan doesn’t identify where this takes place, but he does add to the discussion, tweeting, “ There are theories which talk about ancient elephant cemeteries in the forest…but I have not found any conclusive evidence. Though in most cases, elephants prefer to die near water bodies.”
Kaswan also confirmed that elephants “are quite emotional. They do so many things like humans. The kids around water play like us. They snore while sleeping. They remember everything, including roads. They learn new things. Long life help them accumulate these.”
Photo courtesy of Indian Forest Service.
