ATTACKS BY WILD ASIAN ELEPHANTS

ATTACKS BY ASIAN WILD ELEPHANTS


Charging Asian elephant

A report by the World Wide Fund said that hundreds of people in Asia are killed very year by elephants, with up to 300 deaths in India alone. More people in India are killed by elephants than tigers. An elephant can split a man's skull a flick its trunk, and a badly treated elephant will look for the first opportunity to do so. Most attacks are blames o the “clearance of forests for settlement and agriculture is disrupting traditional elephant migration routes and leading to violent clashes between people and elephants when hungry elephants raid crops."

One naturalist documented over 160 deaths in a 2,150 square mile forest reserve in India over 15 years. Most of the deaths are caused by bull elephants who can eat up a farmer's field in one afternoon, sometimes just days before the harvest. Victims of ravaged fields, however, don't blame elephants who they see as god, they blame themselves, believing the have been punished for something.←

Sometimes elephants are very deliberate with the intent to kill. The Blair brothers wrote about a Sumatran friend of theirs who wounded a crop-raiding elephant with buckshot and then was chased up a tree. The elephant went back and forth between a stream and the tree, spaying the roots with water until the it was able to push over the tree and trampled the poor man to death. Other times it seems like villages simple get in the way. A herd of 50 or so wild elephants sometimes stray out of the forests and stampede through villages trampling people to death.

Sometimes elephant attacks can result in multiple deaths, In the early 2000s in Assam, a herd of elephant went berserk after raiding granaries and drinking country liquor, trampling to death six people, four of them children. A single elephant can kill dozens. One rogue elephant was blamed for the deaths of 27 villagers during a ten week period in Assam in the fall 1993.

Elephants Attacks in Bangladesh

Elephants, a protected wildlife species in Bangladesh, often venture into villages, mostly at night, to look for food, often damaging crops. In 2001, wild elephants killed some 40 people last year in Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and Chittagong Hill Tracts bordering Myanmar and India's Tripura state, police said. [Source: Reuters, February 11, 2002]

In the early 2000s, a large herd of elephants crossed the border from India to Bangladesh and made great nuisance of themselves, eating crops and rampaging through villages. Villagers set up electrified fence to protect their crops. One elephant was electrocuted by the fence. When the herd came to check him out another one was electrocuted.

In 2001, rampaging elephants killed three people in the hill country near Cox's Bazar in southeast Bangladesh. The elephants, whose forest homes have shrunk dramatically, entered villages in search of food and trampled people to death.

In May 2004, elephants in the Cox’s Bazaar area went on rampage — destroying huts, uprooting trees and sending villagers running for their lives — after a member of their herd was shot and killed by poachers. The poachers killed a young make elephant and cut off its tusks. Some elephants protected the body, making mournful sounds and chasing away any humans that tried to approach it. [Source: AP]

In February 2002, wild elephants killed three and injured 10 in Cox Bazar area. Reuters reported: “Rampaging wild elephants trampled to death three Bangladeshis and injured 10 in the country's southeastern forest region. "Two of the victims died Friday and the other Saturday when herds of elephants stormed two farming villages near a forest at Ukhia, 450 km (281 miles) from Dhaka," said Matiur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Cox's Bazar district. He said the elephants destroyed nearly 15 straw and bamboo-made houses, leaving some 100 people homeless. Forest officials said they believed the elephants strayed out of the forests when disturbed by illegal loggers. [Source: Reuters, February 11, 2002]

In November 2001, Reuters reported: “Wild elephants have killed four people and injured 15 others while rampaging through two villages in southeastern Bangladesh, forest officials said on Thursday. "A herd of some 15 elephants stormed the villages at Rangunia in Chittagong district. They pulled down a number of bamboo and straw houses, damaged crops and killed four people," one official told reporters. He said 15 villagers were injured by the elephants, which came from nearby forests that are about 350 kilometers (220 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka. [Source:Reuters, November 23, 2001]

Elephants Attacks in China

In 2008, a woman who ran a food kiosk in Wild Elephant Valley park near Mengman in the Xishuangbanna region of southwest Yunnan near Laos and Myanmar park was trampled to death by an angry elephant. A few months later a U.S. tourist was critically injured by an elephant while trying to take a picture. In a village near the park an elephant killed a television cameraman investigating reports about crop destruction. Another villager, an old man, was trampled to death while collecting peanuts in the mud. In 2005, raids by wild elephants in Yunnan Province killed three villagers and destroyed crops belonging to 12,000 households in 576 communities.

In November 1999, The Telegraph, reported: “Rare Chinese wild elephants are terrorising villagers in the south western province of Yunnan. Forestry officials and animal experts are trying to teach farmers to keep quiet and run away from elephants after three people were trampled to death. Homes have been smashed and crops destroyed by the animals. Inexperienced villagers have been trying to scare them away with loud noises, bonfires, revving tractor engines and even by throwing firecrackers at the three-ton animals. [Source: David Rennie. The Telegraph, November 12, 1999]

Elephant Attacks in India

About 150 to 200 people living in the edges of forests are killed every year by elephants in India. Most of the deaths take place in eastern Indian where people kill the elephants with burning tires, poison and electrocution. In 2001, 150 people were killed in elephant attacks in India. This was down from a peak of around 300 people a year in the early 1990s. Many think that more people than this are killed because many attacks are in remote places and are not reported to government officials. Many attacks occur in the Wayanad region in the southern state of Kerala.

One resident of village that lost 11 people told the Los Angeles Times that one night elephants quietly approached his mud, brick and thatch house and knocked down a wall, killing his mother. He said, “We can not sleep at night. The elephants have forced most of the villagers to seek shelter on rooftops. Most every house has a door broken or something else damaged...We are most worried but our children.”

In November 1999, UPI reported: “An American tourist was crushed and trampled to death when the elephant she was riding was attacked and killed by another in a national park. Mary Brumder, 80, from Milwaukee, was on vacation with her grandson Matthew, when she was killed at Kaziranga National Park in India's northeastern Assam state. National park officials said that a male elephant tried to push past the female elephant on which Brumder was riding, causing it to fall. The male elephant trampled and crushed the female elephant and Brumder, who died on the spot. Other riders escaped unhurt but the mahout has been seriously injured. Regular daily rides are conducted for tourists in the park that houses 46 elephants. [Source: UPI Focus, November 18, 1999]

In March 2001, Ananova reported: “Villagers in India are sleeping in treetops because they fear elephant attacks. Families in Keonjhar in Orissa are now fighting over the shrinking treespace available. Official figures say 49 people have been killed by elephants in four years. Kartika Naik, of Tentuli village, said the elephants were protected. "When we kill elephants, the police handcuffs us. What about the elephants who kill us?" he said. Five people were recently trampled to death by elephants, reports the Deccan Chronicle. Forest officer Vikram Singh said elephants were attracted into villages by large-scale brewing of local alcoholic drink Handia. But villagers claim it is the noise of nearby mining which aggravates the elephants, and forest fires threatening their habitat. They say the answer is to grow ginger, turmeric and jute, which give off a smell repellant to elephants. [Source: Ananova, March 28, 2001]

In January 2001, Ananova reported: Wild elephants kill 17 in Chattisgarh statem where government officials are asking experts to try to tame and catch the animals. The animals are from jungles in the neighbouring state of Jharkhand, Sify News reports. Anoop Srivastava, divisional forest officer for Surguja district, believes the elephants are looking for food. Villages in Surguja, Jashpur and Raigarh districts of Chattisgarh have been evacuated because of the threat. The deaths all all occurred in a single week. Animal rights groups say development projects are driving the animals out of their native forests. [Source: Ananova, January 14, 2002]

Elephant Attacks in Assam, India

There is high number of attacks in Assam and northeastern India, particularly in the fall when rice beer is typically made. Between 1999 and 2004 at least 150 people and 200 elephants were killed in Assam. Describing one elephant raid an Assamese official said, “The elephants entered the village and guzzled down locally-made rice beer kept in drums and then went on a rampage, killing three people, including one woman.” In 2000, 100 people and 30 elephants were killed in incidents involving a single herd of 300 elephants.

November 2004 AP reported: “Wild elephant herds have been terrorizing India's remote northeast, killing people, flattening houses and even guzzling local rice beer supplies, prompting villagers to retaliate against the pachyderms with firecrackers and bonfires. With an estimated 5,000 elephants, Assam state ( search ) has the largest concentration of wild Asiatic elephants in India, said M.C. Malakar, Assam's Chief Wildlife Warden. The big herds, faced with shrinking forest cover and human encroachment of their corridors, venture into human settlements looking for food and attack those who try to stop them. The wild elephants have stampeded across the region, stomping down houses and feasting on standing crops, Pradyut Bordoloi, Assam state's forest minister, said. [Source: AP, November 13, 2004]

Rice beer is an attraction. Workers in tea plantations in Assam make rice beer at home and store it in drums. "There are many instances of wild elephants guzzling the brew and returning for more," Bordoloi said. Wild elephants have killed at least 22 people so far this year in the state, wildlife authorities say. A rapidly shrinking habitat is the main reason for elephants killing more than 600 people in the past 15 years, the authorities say.

In October 2004 26, wild elephants guzzled rice beer kept in drums in Marongi, a village about 175 miles east of Assam's main city of Gauhati, and then went on a rampage, trampling three people to death and wounding two others, India media reported. Wildlife officials and villagers use firecrackers and bonfires to scare away the large herds, Bordoloi told The Associated Press. Villagers also beat on drums.

In October 2001, AP reported: “Wild elephants broke into a cluster of thatched huts, guzzled rice beer fermenting in casks and then tore the village apart in a drunken rampage, trampling four people to death and injuring six, a wildlife official said Thursday. The herd of 15 elephants descended on the village of Prajapatibosti, 180 miles east of Gauhati, state capital of northeastern Assam, elephant expert Kushal Konwar Sharma said. The elephants broke into the thatched huts with their trunks and then began drinking rice beer from casks, Sharma said in a telephone interview from Golaghat. "After drinking the beer the elephant herd became intoxicated and went on a rampage, trampling to death four members of a family,'' he said. The animals trampled rice paddies and more huts before leaving the area Thursday morning. [Source: AP, October 21, 2001]

Elephant Attacks in Urban Areas India

Not all the attacks are in villages. In April 2005, an elephant ran amok in a busy shopping area in Gauhati in northwestern India, killing two and injuring two. The elephant was subdued with tranquilizers.

In June 2011, Shankar BennurJeevan Chinnappa wrote in The Hindu, “A young wild elephant rampaged through the heart of Mysore, trampling a man to death and injuring four others. Two head of cattle also died in the elephantine fury. Straying from its herd, the male elephant, aged between 8 and 10, entered the city along with a 12-year-old tusk-less male (a makhna). But it was the tusker which terrorised people as well as cattle in its six-hour rampage. [Source: Shankar BennurJeevan Chinnappa, The Hindu, June 8, 2011]

The makhna, which was separated from the tusker, fortunately did not attack people. Both elephants — believed to be part of a herd from the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary, some 40 environmental from here — ran in different directions: one towards the Sewage Treatment Plant near R.S. Naidu Nagar where it stayed put, and the other towards the Shivarampet-Saraswatipuram areas.

Renukaswamy (55), a security guard at a bank ATM at Shivarampet, was gored to death. The attack was filmed live by journalists and amateurs on mobile phones. The hapless man ran into one of the bylanes of this crowded locality, only to be outrun by the animal. The attack was filmed by journalists and amateurs on mobile phones. The injured, attacked in other residential localities, are Balakrishna (42), Siddamma (80), Velvet (52) and Pavan (24). While the first three were being treated in the K.R. Hospital, the fourth person was treated as an outpatient and discharged, said Commissioner of Police Sunil Agarwal. The tusker trashed some vehicles also during its rampage.

Panic gripped the city, whose most famous festival features resplendently caparisoned elephants, as news of the rampage spread. A live telecast drew curious people who turned up in large numbers to watch something straight from When Animals Attack. The tusker first attacked a cow tethered to a post on New Sayyaji Rao Road around 6 a.m., and fatally injured another in an adjacent neighbourhood. It then marched towards Mission Hospital Road and attacked octogenarian Siddamma, who was too frail to outpace the agitated jumbo.

“The elephants were first noticed at Bamboo Bazaar around 5.15 a.m. They panicked on seeing the crowds,” Satish Naidu, who tracked the young tusker all along its route, told The Hindu. Anxious crowds began gathering wherever the tusker went. The police gathered in full strength to contain the surging crowds in and around the Saraswatipuram area, where the animal barged into some scrub near Dhobi Ghat.

Efforts were made to tranquillise the animal on two occasions, the first on the Oval Grounds, which failed. The young bull went on to damage some vehicles, including a KSRTC bus, along the main road and on the JSS Women's College premises. Another dart was fired near Dhobi Ghat, where hundreds had gathered to see the unfolding drama. Jute ropes and shackles were kept ready before elephants from Mysore Palace took control of the situation. The young animal was finally led away around 11.30 a.m. The makhna, which stayed put in its refuge, was successfully tranquillised in the afternoon. Four Dasara elephants — Arjuna, Abhimanyu, Gajendra and Srirama — which were brought from the forests, then took over. This was around 5.30 p.m.

Ajay Mishra, Field Director, Project Elephant, told The Hindu that the elephants were corralled now and would be safely released into the forests. As soon as the attack commenced in the area, which has a clutch of schools, the district administration declared a holiday for all educational institutions. Karnataka Minister for Forests C.H. Vijayashankar, who visited Mr. Renukaswamy's house later, consoled the grieving family and promised a job to one of the members. He handed over a cheque for Rs. 5 lakh as compensation (as a special case) to the family. The Minister later called on the injured in the hospital, where the condition of Siddamma is said to be serious.

Efforts to Prevent Elephant Attacks in Assam, India

November 2004 AP reported: “Officials also use electric fences and dig trenches, but these are meant to protect people from elephant attacks, not to scare the elephants. In 2001, at least 19 wild elephants were poisoned to death by angry villagers, Bordoloi said. Satellite imagery showed that as many as 113,315 acres of thick forests were cleared by human encroachers in 1996 to 2000, leading to the breakup of traditional elephant corridors and their habitat, Bordoloi said. A government ban on capturing elephants and restrictions on sending them to other states has aggravated Assam's problem. [Source: AP, November 13, 2004]

“The state has created buffer zones to tackle the menace. An area on the periphery of villages is cultivated with plants found palatable by the elephants, and the second layer has plants like mustard that elephants shun. Authorities are encouraging the farmers to buy crop insurance and are raising compensation to the families of those killed by elephants. "The idea is to prevent angry villagers from retaliating and attempting to kill raiding elephants," Bordoloi said. "The elephants are a part of our heritage and we have to coexist."

In December 1997, Associated Press reported: India's northeastern state of Assam has requested federal permission to capture 200 rogue elephants. This year alone, 23 people have been trampled to death by elephants who have left their natural habitat in the jungles to wander into human settlements. The rampaging pachyderms have also destroyed acres of crops. Angry victims in the district of Nagaon have staged hunger strikes and marches to demand further action be taken against the elephants. ''We are trying our best to put an end to this problem, but the elephants do not seem to be scared of crackers or gunshots,'' S. Abbasi, a government official in Nagaon, told the Associated Press on Tuesday. The federal government has approved capturing 20 elephants this year, but no trappers have volunteered because they are poorly paid. Assam forest minister Nagen Sharma blamed the problem on an increase in the elephant population and declining habitat for them. [Source: Associated Press, December 23, 1997]

Elephants Attacks in Vietnam

In 1997 AP reported: “A herd of wild elephants went on a rampage through a village in southern Vietnam, killing one villager, destroying homes and trampling crops, state-run news media reported. The roughly 20-member herd has terrorized Gia Canh, a village just north of Ho Chi Minh City, for a week, the Saigon Times Daily said. Villager Thai Can Khanh was killed when an elephant stormed through his garden, knocking him down and trampling on him, the newspaper said.

A single herd of rampaging elephants killed 12 people in Binh Thuan Province in three years through raids on crops and villages, which they had been forced to do by loss of habitat, In June 2001, Ananova reported: Vietnamese authorities plan to move a herd of elephants which has killed at least 10 people. The decision follows reports that a bull elephant killed a man in the southern Binh Thuan province. Officials say the elephants confined themselves to crop-raiding until mid-1999 when they claimed their first human victim. Armed soldiers are on guard but officials say they are reluctant to kill the elephants because of heavy penalties under environmental laws. The South China Morning Post quotes one witness to the latest attack as saying: "Following a trail of blood, we came upon his remains which were spread over an area of about 100 square metres. "It appeared that he had been thrown and trampled until his body was crushed and his remains and clothing were strewn all over a nearby hill. The attack also saw four houses destroyed and the survivors remain terrified." Local commune chief Nguyen Than said: "Everybody is living in fear. No-one can work and people are afraid to stay in their homes because they may attack again at any time." [Source: Ananovam June 15, 2001]

Jim Christy wrote in Walrus Magazine, “I was in Saigon in December 2003 when a story appeared in the Viet Nam News, the country’s English-language daily, about some rampaging elephants that had killed a number of people in the Central Highlands. The herd was incensed, the article suggested, by human encroachment on its territory. Most elephant attacks are the work of rogues cut off from their herd and driven mad by loneliness or pain. There are very few recorded incidents where the animals conspired to kill humans. In the paper’s archives, I discovered reports of other deadly attacks in several provinces going back a number of years, but mostly in the Central Highlands, near the Laotian and Cambodian borders. The stories had a common theme: jungles are the natural habitat of elephants; as the jungles are depleted and the animals have less space to forage and reproduce, they become enraged and strike back.[Source: Jim Christy, Walrus Magazine, April/May 2004]

At first, the attacks had occurred when the elephants came upon a human in the course of their wandering. Most recently, though, it seemed as though the animals had gone looking. The government tried all sorts of schemes, such as relocating them or bringing in Malaysian mahouts — expert elephant handlers — to consult. Nothing worked. The rogue herd had already been moved to the country’s largest national park, Yok Don, in Dak Lak province, but no sooner had they snapped out of their tranquilized stupor than they went on a foray beyond the park, trampling anyone they came upon and making for the village of Ban Don, where they destroyed several housesbefore returning to the jungle. It seemed very much like a warning.

That’s what intrigued me: the elephants were clearly thinking and planning. I’m aware that we love to anthropomorphize these great beasts, but I could find no other explanation for what they had done here, for their method. They had a purpose and were communicating with each other.

Elephants Attacks in Indonesia

In October 2009, the Jakarta Post reported: “A herd of wild elephants entered a village in Geumpang subdistrict, Aceh province recently, damaging three houses and ruining food crops, a local leader said. "For the past week, a herd of about 17 elephants have been rampaging through our village. They have destroyed three houses and they have eaten the rice plants in our fields," a local community chief, M Sabi, told Antara state news agency.

The three damaged houses belonged to Abdullah Saman, Yusri Yusuf and Ibnu Abbas. All three residents, along with their families, have moved to a safer place. Sabi said, in fact, two villages in Geumpang subdistrict — Gampong Pulo and Bangkeh — had been terrorized by wild elephants for the past two months. They had destroyed the villagers' crops and chased anyone who came in sight. [Source: Jakarta Post, October 28 2009]

So far, the authorities, such as the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA), have taken no action to help the villagers overcome the problem. "Local residents are now forced to try to drive the elephants away by their own means, like with bamboo cannons. Every night we strike the cannon to create sounds that scare the elephants away," Sabi said. Material losses from the elephants' rampages have yet to be assessed. However, Muhammad Gapi, a local resident, said people in his area had to buy the carbide, a basic material used to fire up the bamboo cannons, with their own money. "We have to spend Rp 100,000 [US$10] each night just to buy carbide for the cannons," Gapi said.

In November 2008 AP reported: “A man was trampled to death and a home was destroyed by a herd of 16 elephants that rampaged through the village of Cot Pangee in Aceh Province on Indonesia's Sumatra island. Villagers tried to scare away the animals for days by yelling and making loud noises, but instead they became more aggressive. Authorities were trying to chase the elephants back into the forest, but it did not succeed because of the bad weather. Illegal logging and farming was blamed by environmentalists forcing the elephants searching for food elsewhere. There was another elephant rampage before when a woman and her 3-year-old daughter were trampled to death. Later a 14-year-old boy was killed by a wild elephant stepping on his head. The boy's motorbike hit the animal. In September 2009 there was an elephant attack in Pauh Ranap village, Riau province, which killed one villager and injured another. [Source: www.gmanews.tv , November 27, 2008]

Elephants Attacks in Malaysia

In April 2001, The Boston Globe reported: “A wild elephant has killed a man and his wife in a forest in Malaysia. The man, his wife and their daughter were walking home after a fishing trip near Dungun when the attack took place. Ismail Abdul Rahman, 59 and his wife Aliah Ishak 59, were attacked by the elephant and killed. Dungun is about 270 miles northeast of Kuala Lumpur. Their daughter, Siti Aminah Ismail, 36, was injured in the attack and is being treated at the state hospital in Dungun. Siti Aminah told the Bernama news agency that she warned her parents of the presence of the elephant. The animal suddenly charged at them, grabbing her father with its trunk and throwing him to the ground. It also came toward her, pushing her with its trunk before turning to her mother. "I saw my mother running away with the elephant in pursuit. I thought she would escape," she said. [Source: Boston Globe, April 13, 2001]

In December 2011, Associated Press reported: A pygmy elephant has fatally gored an Australian tourist in a remote Malaysian wildlife reserve on Borneo island. Jenna O'Grady Donley died of injuries from the attack on Wednesday at the Tabin wildlife reserve, the first known fatal attack in Malaysia's eastern Sabah state, said the region's wildlife department director, Laurentius Ambu. The wild male elephant had been roaming alone around a mud volcano when Donley, a friend and their Malaysian guide saw it while trekking near their resort, Ambu said. [Source: AP. December 8, 2011]

Donley, 25, a vet, is believed to have gone within 10 metres of the animal, which might have charged at her because it was alarmed by the unfamiliar humans, Ambu said. Rangers had not seen the elephant but planned to drive it back into the forest, Ambu said. The elephant that attacked Donley is believed to have been a near-adult about 2 metres tall. Australia's foreign affairs department said the victim was from New South Wales. There were occasional elephant attacks in Sabah, Ambu said, usually if the animals were disturbed. This was the first incident of its kind at the Tabin reserve. People should remain at least 50 metres from wild elephants, he said.

Elephant Attacks in Thailand

In July 2009, SkyNews reported: “Police are investigating a horrific attack in southern Thailand, where an elephant stomped three rubber plantation workers to death, police said. The female beast first crushed a 44-year-old male worker who was working in a farm, police Lieutenant Sonjit Ma-ou told reporters."It then freely wandered into another plantation a few miles away and attacked a 38-year-old woman," he said. "Her husband saw it charging toward her, grabbing her body with its trunk and hurling her on the ground before stomping on her body." [Source: SkyNews, July 1, 2009]

Somjit said another victim, a 51-year-old woman, was found dead in a nearby plantation later in the morning. "There was no witness in the last case, but we found footprints of the beast and from the manner in which she was killed, we believe it was an attack by the same elephant," Somjit said. The attacks happened in Trang province, where the 38-year-old elephant, named Natalie, worked pulling rubberwood. The animal was eventually recaptured by her handler. "All three victims died instantly after she stamped on their chests and stomachs, breaking their ribs," Sonjit said.The authorities were investigating whether the handler was negligent in letting the animal wander freely.

In October 2000, Reuters reported: “Thai police said they had captured a cow elephant which had fled after colliding with an oil tanker, causing the truck to plunge off the road and explode, killing two people. Following the accident, which occurred in Lampang province, 375 miles north of Bangkok, dozens of police and civilian volunteers combed surrounding hillsides in search of the injured animal. Following a blood and manure trail left by the elephant, the police and civilian hunters eventually found the animal hiding deep in a forest, a police officer said. "We first need to determine whether it is a wild or domesticated elephant before deciding what to do. If we found its owner, he would probably be charged with negligence for failing to keep the elephant in a proper place," the policeman said. [Source: Reuters, October 13, 2000]

In March 2012, a lustful male elephant seeking a mate went on a rampage and attacked its owner then collapsed from heart failure and died. The Bangkok Post reported: “Male elephant Sidor Plaiwan collapsed and died from heart failure after chasing its mahout in Nakhon Si Thammarat province. The mahout was unhurt. The 25-year-old jumbo killed its previous owner while also in a frenzy of lust, the month before. [Source: Bangkok Post, March 5, 2012]

“The elephant's owner and mahout, Somchai Yoothongkham, said he bought Sidor for 450,000 baht last month from relatives of Pichit Phocha who was killed by Sidor when it became agitated, after seeking a partner to mate with but without success. Mr Somchai later took the elephant to Phrommakhiri district to work. As the elephant showed no signs of agitation, he took it to haul rubber logs in a forest behind a village in Tambon Thonhong on Saturday.

“After hauling three logs, the elephant went berserk and tried to attack him, Mr Somchai said. He fled along a steep hill. The jumbo, with logs under its trunk, ran after him and later collapsed. Somchai alerted veterinarian Pornpirom Fungtrakul to help his animal. The vet injected the elephant with pain-relief medicine and saline solution to boost its energy. The elephant's condition gradually improved. However, its condition later deteriorated before it collapsed again and died.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: National Geographic, Natural History magazine, Smithsonian magazine, Wikipedia, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, AFP, The Economist, BBC, and various books and other publications.

Last updated November 2012


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