The Chhattisgarh forest department has issued a rare advisory urging media to stop labeling elephants as "terrorists" and "murderers."
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00:00Chhattisgarh's forest department just did something that made me so glad I have to share it with you
00:05But let's start with this headline from a regional daily and this one says
00:08Gajraj ka aatang, gram eel ko kuchl kar maa dala, 117 haati kar rahe vichran
00:14Here's another, haatiyon ke aatang se pareshaan, jangli haati kisanon ki fasle kar rahe barbad
00:19And then there is this YouTube headline loud and blinking in all caps
00:23It says Patal gaon mein haatiyon ka aatang, tantel ne kuchla insaan
00:27Now let's talk about what the Chhattisgarh forest department just did
00:30So these really cool guys out there put out a rare advisory asking the media
00:34Especially the vernacular press out there to stop calling elephants things like aatanki, hatyara,
00:40Hinsak, ziddi and pagal. Why? Because language matters and the way we talk about
00:47Elephants is turning a conservation crisis into a culture war
00:50It looks like. The trigger, not one single case but a disturbing pattern in headlines, stickers
00:56YouTube thumbnails
00:58So what really happens is villages die, crops get destroyed and then videos go viral with labels like haati ka aatang
01:04Now these are not just adjectives. They create fear and fear justifies retaliation
01:09Poison, traps, elephants get electrocuted. Somebody will just come and shove a firecracker into their food
01:16Yes, of course
01:17The conflict is real. Between 2019 and 2024 hundreds have died in human elephant encounters in Chhattisgarh alone
01:23That's hundreds of people but words like terrorist erase everything else from habitat loss to encroachment
01:30To the fact that elephants are simply trying to survive in fast shrinking forests
01:35Some sections of our media, they do love a villain when they see one, but not everything wild is wicked
01:41Maybe it's time we reframe the story. Maybe don't call it an aatanki hamla when a lost elephant wanders into a village
01:47Maybe call it what it is a warning that we built too far too fast that the jungle has run out of space