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India: Laser pointers said to harass elephants

Amid a rash of captive elephants going wild in the southwestern Indian state of Kerala comes a claim that laser pointers have been used to provoke the pachyderms.

An April 12 2018 story says that although “[s]evere torture and unscientific handling” can cause problems, that laser pointers also may have been used recently by “a mysterious group with vested interests.”

According to the story, “There were complaints that light beams were shined continuously from a distance into the eyes of elephants paraded at the Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Thiruvananthapuram and some other local temples in Thiruvalla and Pathanamthitta. It was alleged that the jumbos turned restive and violent after being blinded with the high-powered laser pointer.”

The story includes a 47-second video clip of an elephant refusing to get onto a truck, while a dot moves around on and near the elephant.

COMMENTARY FROM LASERPOINTERSAFETY.COM

An analysis indicates that the moving dot is not from a laser, but is from lens flare — internal reflection in the camera lens of a bright light in the scene.

The screenshot below, from one second into the video, shows the dot circled in green, and a bright light circled in red.

elephant alleged laser Kerala India

As the video is played, the dot moves around. Its movements are correlated with the bright light. For example, when the elephant’s body blocks the light, the dot disappears. Because it is a reflection, it moves opposite to the light, and its movement also changes based on the tilt of the camera lens.

In addition, the dot appears yellow or white. This correlates with the light color. Yellow is very uncommon for laser pointers, while there are no “white” laser pointer beams. A green or red dot would indicate an actual laser.

While there may be other incidents of laser pointer misuse in Kerala, the moving dot in this particular video does not, in the view of LaserPointerSafety.com, show a laser dot or any actual (real-world) light on the elephant.

From Manorama Online