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Jaw-breakers endangering lives of children and pets
Jaw bombs used to harm elephants could also end up being a social issue, activists warn.
Laura, a playful female German Shephard who suffered grievous injuries to her jaw from a hakka patas blast eventually succumbed to the injuries
Children and domestic animals including pets are falling victim to the small explosive devices called ‘hakka patas’.
Recently, a four-year-old pet dog suffered fatal injuries.
Laura, a playful female German Shephard, owned by Amila Sanjeew who lives in Passara, Badulla, had raised the dog in his wife’s home in nearby Madolsima village.
On February 17, they had ignored what they thought was a firecracker blast, but the following morning they found Laura lying in a pool of blood at their front door.
They rushed the dog to a veterinary surgeon. The dog’s jaw was shattered in four places, and the tongue damaged. Steel rods were used to fix the jaw in a five-hour surgery.
Laura appeared to be recovering but she began bleeding from the nose and started to show signs of paralysis. Her condition worsened and she died on February 27.
The explosion is believed to have damaged the brain as well.
Hakka patas is not uncommon in Passara.
Sanjeew believes that someone had planted the hakka patas to harm the dog, which usually would not stray further from their garden. “She likes to play with balloons. There were pieces of a balloon in the roof of the jaw. The device had been set up in a balloon,” said Sanjeew.
Hakka patas is a small improvised explosive device made of gun powder and small particles like rocks mixed and tightly packed like a potato. Hidden in food, the explosives are often used to kill wild boar and other animals, but causes collateral damage.
It is only last week that the Sunday Times reported that hakka patas had become the leading killer of elephants in Sri Lanka, accounting for 67 deaths in 2019.
It is mostly elephant calves that are less than 10 years old that suffer, but there also incidents of humans being wounded.
These jaw breakers have wounded children, sometimes fatally.
A 10-year-old boy died in Hambegamuwa in 2016. The boy had tried to bite into one, a media report said.
On February 3, in Deraniyagala, an eight-year-old boy suffered severe injuries to his arm after dashing a hakka patas on a boulder. His 11-year-old sister was also injured.
Mala Ranjani in Ingiriya lost her hand due to a hakka patas explosion in 2015
Both had been admitted to Avissawella Hospital and the boy was later transferred to Colombo General Hospital.
In October last year, in Wanduramba in the Galle district, an eight-year-old girl was wounded in an explosion along with her brother. She had been playing with an object she found.
A suspect was later arrested with hakka patas.
Meanwhile, the Janasansadaya people’s forum, through a video on their YouTube channel reveals information about a 30-year-old woman, Mala Ranjani in Ingiriya who had lost her hand due to a hakka patas explosion in 2015. Her daughter had found the explosive on their land. Ms Ranjani had tried to prise it open with a knife and it had exploded.
There are wildlife poachers too, who have lost their fingers while attempting to make or setup hakka patas.
Domestic animals like cattle are among victims.
According to Hemantha Withanage of the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ), villagers often know who makes these explosives.
Sri Lankans should act fast before it causes widespread damage, he said.