ATTACKS BY WILD ASIAN ELEPHANTS IN INDIA: REVENGE, PREVENTION, RELOCATIONS

ATTACKS BY WILD ASIA ELEPHANTS IN INDIA

Charging Asian elephant

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 India, elephant encounters over four years from 1996 to 1999 killed more than 1,700 people. 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.”

According to the BBC: Loss of habitat and fragmentation has forced some Asian elephant in India to enter human habitats and raid crops, leading to conflicts. Locals told The New Indian Express newspaper that when huts in the area were made of bamboo and grass, the elephant caused little damage when he came foraging for food. But as the population grew and houses made of concrete became common, the elephant started damaging buildings and having run-ins with humans, leading to protests from locals. [Source: Meryl Sebastian — BBC News, Kochi, May 1, 2023]

Attacks by Wild Asian Elephants in India in the 1990s and Early 2000s

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]

Elephants In India Get Revenge Against Humans

Charging Asian elephant

According to Newsweek, elephants trampled a man who killed “a one-year old calf that belonged to the herd . Spencer Jones wrote in Travel Noire: This is just the latest in a string of stories involving elephants exacting revenge on cruel humans. Last summer, a 68-year-old Indian woman was stomped to death by an elephant. If that wasn’t shocking enough, several elephants went to the funeral, flung her corpse in the air and destroyed her home. It’s believed that the woman may have been part of a poacher group. On the flip side, elephants are also capable of showing appreciation for humans who have shown them kindness. When conservationist Lawrence Anthony died in 2012, a herd of elephants traveled 12 hours to stand vigil at his house.[Source: Spencer Jones, Travel Noire, October 25, 2022]

Newsweek reported, “villagers in Korba in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh had allegedly killed the calf earlier in the week and buried it in Bania village.” Pintawar Singh, was looking after his cattle when a herd of 44 elephants approached and trampled him. Officials uncovered the calf’s body from a farm in Bania village, where it had been buried and covered with paddy to hide it. The owner of the farm was detained by officials. It is not clear if Singh was involved in killing the calf.”

Duncan McNair, the founder of Save The Asian Elephants, said, “Undoubtedly, this was retaliatory action by the herd upon the very person who took the life of one of their young, seeking him out and those around him for retribution,” he said.When villagers harm or kill elephants for destroying their crops (or just for sport), elephants sometimes retaliate. The herd responsible for Singh’s death “damaged 22 acres of crops in two days. Crop-raiding incidents often stem from elephants being forced out of their habitat to find food and water.”

Elephant Attacks in Kerala, India

In February 2024, Pete Thomas wrote in FTW Outdoors: A motorist in India captured footage showing two men running for their lives from an elephant and one of the men being kicked by the pachyderm. The Wayanadgram Instagram description states that the footage was captured by a man named Sawad as he and his family were en route to the resort city of Ooty. [Source: Pete Thomas, FTW Outdoors, February 2, 2024]

It shows the men frantically trying to outrun the elephant while another person stayed close to them in a red car. It was a harrowing encounter even for those in Sawad’s vehicle, as a woman is heard screaming in apparent fear for the mens’ lives.After one of the men lost his footing and fell alongside the road, the elephant slapped him with its trunk and kicked him before ending the chase.

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]

Relocations Arikomban: India's Rice-Loving, Killer Elephant

Meryl Sebastian of the BBC wrote: In just over a month, a wild elephant in India has been captured twice, tranquilised multiple times and relocated over 280 kilometers (173 miles) away from its native forest in a bid to keep it away from human settlements in search of food. Arikomban ("rice tusker" in the Malayalam language) — named for his raids on local shops for rice — has been relocated in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu even as authorities grapple to secure a permanent habitat. The elephant has also been at the centre of legal battles and a debate on animal rights. In Kerala, Arikomban has become a "symbol of resilience in the face of injustice," says activist Sreedevi S Kartha. "Events have shown how brutal the process of translocation can be for an elephant," she told the BBC. "It has sparked the conscience of people in the state."[Source: Meryl Sebastian, BBC News, June 12, 2023]

Early in 2023, a group of locals near Arikomban's original habitat, Chinnakanal in Kerala's Idukki district, demanded his relocation after frequent run-ins with humans led to protests. Officials say the elephant has killed several people over the years — a claim refuted by local tribal communities. Kerala's forest department announced that it planned to capture Arikomban and make him a trained captive elephant. Rights activists filed a petition with the high court, urging intervention to ensure the safety of the animal.

Ms Kartha, a member of People for Animals, one of the groups that filed the plea in court, says the government provided no evidence of the elephant killing humans. "During our inquiry in the area, tribal people said that Arikomban had not killed anyone," Kartha said. In April, a court-appointed committee of experts decided it would be better to translocate the tusker.Over two days, 150 officials carried out a massive operation in Chinnakanal to capture Arikomban. On 29 April, the elephant was moved to the Periyar Tiger Reserve about 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Barely a month later, forest officials in Tamil Nadu, the neighbouring state, found themselves undertaking a similar operation to relocate the animal once more. The tusker had been spotted in the state's Cumbum town on 27 May. Videos on social media showed the animal running through the densely populated town, damaging buildings and vehicles. Three people were injured — one of them, a 65-year-old man, succumbed to wounds two days later. Curfew was imposed as authorities tried to capture the elephant.

Forest officials in Tamil Nadu carried out an operation to translocate Arikomban once again Arikomban now found himself at the centre of court battles. A politician filed a petition in the Kerala High Court asking for the elephant to be brought back to the state. A petition in the Madras High Court sought compensation for the damages he had caused in Tamil Nadu.

Kerala's forest minister, AK Saseendran, said the crisis vindicated his government's plan to make Arikomban a captive elephant and blamed activists for the elephant's translocation. But the Cumbum incident showed that Arikomban was not a threat to human life, Ms Kartha says. "He was traumatised and chased but did not attack human beings there."On five June Tamil Nadu's forest officials tranquilised and captured the tusker. Visuals of Arikoban's latest capture raised concerns about the number of times the tusker had been tranquilised and the injuries the animal had suffered as he was transported by officials in an open truck. Stephen Daniel, a wildlife activist, said that the animal was paying the price for policy decisions by government that led to human settlements on the path of elephant routes. "The mental and physical agony the animal was undergoing is unfathomable and the forest departments of the two states have a lot to answer for," he said.

Back in Kerala, tribal groups in Chinnakanal have demand that the elephant should be returned to its original habitat. They plan to approach the courts to bring the tusker back. "What is the need to capture and shift the elephant to the tiger reserve if it is made to suffer in such a manner?" one protester told the news channel Malayala Manorama. Tamil Nadu's forest department said Arikomban had been relocated deep inside Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve, over 200 kilometers (124 miles) away from Cumbum. Reports said locals living nearby protested its relocation, worried that the tusker could wreak havoc in their settlements.

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated December 2024