After public courage over the death of a pregnant elephant in Kerala, another incident of animal brutality surfaced over social media leaving people in shock.

A video was circulated over the social media which showed a pregnant cow being grievously injured after having fed firecrackers wrapped in wheat flour in Himachal Pradesh. The incident took place in the Jhandutta area of Bilaspur district on May 26 but came to light on June 6 when the cow’s owner Gurdayal Singh uploaded a video of the injured animal on social media.

The video doing the rounds showed the cow’s jaw being severely injured due to the alleged attack. As the video went viral, people demanded strict action against the miscreants.

The cow’s owner alleged that one of his neighbors named Nanda Lal had fed his cow the dough balls stuffed with firecrackers while the animal was grazing in the field. In a report to Hindustan Times, Bilaspur superintendent of police (SP) Devakar Sharma said the cow was fed a highly explosive firecracker called the ‘aalu bomb’.

This incident comes days after a 15-year-old wild pregnant elephant was found dead while standing in the Velliyar River in Palakkad district of Kerala on May 27. A post-mortem of the animal revealed that she had died from an explosion in her mouth after she ate a fruit stuffed with firecrackers.

The police on June 6 arrested the main accused in the cow’s attack however investigation into the case is still underway.

While the motive behind such a deadly attack is unknown, wildlife officials said it is a common practice among farmers to keep firecrackers in dough balls or fruits to kill wild animals, mainly the blue bulls and wild boars, to protect their crops.

Also Read: Was Pregnant Elephant ‘Deliberately’ Offered Pineapple Stuffed With Firecrackers?