Elephant rampage cluster prompts concerns about animal welfare

AN ELEPHANT has lashed out at a religious festival in India and raised concerns about its welfare after footage of the incident went viral.

Elephant goes on rampage in India

AN ELEPHANT has lashed out at a religious festival in India and raised concerns about its welfare after footage of the incident went viral.

The Thalappoli festival features a music-filled procession headed by richly caparisoned elephants around this time every year.

One of the elephants, named Devidasan, was taking part in the event at the Bhagavathi Temple in the south Indian state of Kerala when things went awry on Thursday.

During the procession, Devidasan went on a rampage and started picking up cars, scooters, tuktuks and vans with his trunk and destroying them.

The clearly distressed animal threw several of the vehicles into the air multiple times before smashing them on the ground as panicked onlookers fled the area.

Two mahouts (elephant trainers) were on the back of the animal throughout the ordeal trying to control him.

Nobody was injured.

It reportedly took several hours to finally bring Devidasan under control.

It has been reported the elephant may have been suffering from a case of “musth” — a testosterone-fuelled rage that periodically besets male elephants.

The incident comes just weeks after another elephant was caught on camera on a similar rampage in East India.

The wild animal ran amok through a town, trampling cars and motorbikes as crowds of people gathered to watch from balconies and roof tops.

Indian bystanders watch as a wild elephant walks along a busy street in Siliguri on February 10, 2016. The adult male elephant was tranquillised and captured by wildlife officials and transported to a nearby forest. Picture: Diptendu Dutta/AFP Photo

Some followed from a distance as the elephant moved through the streets.

“The elephant was scared and was trying to go back to the jungle,” Papaiya Sarkar, a 40-year-old homemaker who watched the elephant amble down a street near her home, said.

The elephant had wandered from the Baikunthapur forest, crossing roads and a small river before entering the town of Siliguri in West Bengal state.

Divisional Forest Officer Basab Rai said the female elephant appeared to be a loner without a herd, and was likely searching for food when it strayed into the town.

He said it did not attack any people, and appeared to be afraid of them.

After several hours, it became clear the elephant was unable to find its way back to the forest.

Authorities eventually shot the elephant three times with a tranquilliser gun and used a crane to lift it into a truck once it had calmed down.

It was then taken to a park for domesticated pachyderms that is maintained by the forest department.

Once the effect of the tranquilliser wore off, authorities planned to return the elephant to the forest, Rai said.

Elephants are increasingly coming into contact with people in India, as the human population of 1.25 billion soars and cities and towns grow at the expense of jungles and other elephant habitats. Up to 300 people are killed by elephants in the country each year.

On Wednesday, another wild elephant trampled a farmer to death in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

The farmer had been sleeping in his paddy field when the elephant appeared, police told Press Trust of India.

India’s elephants are also threatened by speeding trains and illegal poachers looking for ivory to sell on the black market.

Today, there are about 30,000 elephants across the country, restricted to about 15 per cent of their historic habitat, according to the environment ministry.

Worldwide, elephants have disappeared from some 95 per cent of their historical range, which once stretched from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Yellow River in northern China.