Two men were recently arrested in India for throwing a burning tyre on an elephant in order to chase it away from their homestead.

According to Indian Express, the elephant succumbed to its injuries after the incident took place near Ooty, a resort town in the Western Ghats mountains, in southern India’s Tamil Nadu state.

According to a senior forest official, the elephant was attacked on 8 January after it had damaged a luxury car parked at Mavanahalla near Masinagudi.

A video of the attack emerged on social media, following which an investigation was conducted.

“They threw a tyre filled with kerosene at the elephant, which was already being treated by the forest department for a deep back injury,” he said.

LCS Srikanth, deputy director of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve, who is in charge of the area, said they arrested two people. The arrested have been identified as Reymond Mallan Malcolm (28) and Prasath Sugumaran (36).

The residents said people from the resort frequently used to call the forest department to chase the elephant away from residential areas, and have accused the forest staff of not monitored the animal properly.

Nilgiris District Collector J Innocent Divya confirmed that orders have been passed to seal the resort.