An angry elephant went on a rampage in southern India, smashing a line of motorized rickshaws and motorcycles, authorities said.
No one was hurt, said Jaidev Girjakumar, the assistant superintendent of police in Kerala state’s Palakkad district.
Possibly spooked by another pachyderm, the elephant tossed the vehicles around with his trunk, slamming them to the ground. Two people riding on his back held on for their lives.
The elephant went berserk during a Hindu festival last week and was eventually tranquilized, said K. Karthikeyan with the state Forests and Wildlife Department.
Second time in a month
Early last month, a large elephant rumbled through a neighborhood in a town in West Bengal state.
Hundreds of residents followed the elephant as it lumbered through the streets of Siliguri, knocking over walls of small shacks and trampling motorbikes.
“We are assessing the damage. (The elephant) caused a lot of commotion. But now it has been contained,” local administrator Anurag Srivastava said on February 10. There were no reports of any human deaths.
It took four tranquilizer darts, but eventually the elephant was knocked out.
There were about 27,000 elephants in India when the most recent estimation was done in 2008.
The World Wide Fund For Nature says that elephants kill between 100 and 300 people each year in India.