A herd of 24 elephants in India are not likely to forget their wild party night on Wednesday.
Villagers in East India were again surprised – this is not the first time this has happened – when they found two dozen elephants fast asleep on the ground near a broken jug.
The residents of the Salipada village in the state of Odisha, India assumed that the herd of elephants had come across the large pots full of fermented brew and had decided to drink.
Their assumptions are correct.
The villagers ferment a local alcoholic brew that is traditional in India, called ‘mahua,’ made from the flowers of the madhuca longifolia tree.
The brew is very popular in the region, and the villagers left the pots to ferment in the woods for a few days. They are now counting their losses after the 24 elephants sleeping in a drunken stupor next to the pots consumed all their brew. Mahua, in its pure state, contains a whopping 45% alcohol content level.
One of the villagers said they found the broken pots and missing brew at 6:00 in the morning, and then saw the knocked out elephants. It wasn’t too hard to figure out what had happened.
According to the local man, the alcohol is very potent, because it is unprocessed.
The villagers were unsuccessful in their attempts to rouse the elephants. They were forced to inform the forest department authorities who sent officials to wake the elephants up and get them on their way back to the forest. The officials arrived with drums that woke the drunken elephants up from their sleep.
The Chief Executive of Wildlife SOS told reporters that India’s wild animals love mahua alcoholic brew because it is pure, potent, and tasty.
This incident was not the first time elephants in India have indulged in the mahua in local villages. There have been several incidents of them getting drunk on mahua, and sometimes they create havoc in their search for the next high.
This is 100% “proof” that they never forget.
The Wildlife Chief said that when elephants smell the mahua, they go into a frenzy and seek it out until they find it. They break down walls and kitchens to get to it, and when they are done, they stagger home into the forest, sometimes knocking down a tree or two, or even a house along the way.
In April, a search for mahua turned deadly after five elephants accidentally killed five people who were brewing mahua in the Jaisingh Nagar Forest range.
Although seemingly amusing, the situation is a serious and dangerous matter. The government is trying to figure out how to deal with incidents such as these and other conflicts between animals and humans.
Indian officials have warned local villagers to stay away from the forest where the elephant herd is spotted moving and stop brewing mahua. The elephants have a powerful sense of smell and always find it.
The unfortunate five villagers who were killed ignored that warning, and three of the victims were killed by the elephants while they were asleep next to their pots of mahua.
The previous day, the same elephants came across a couple as they were collecting the brew in the forest and killed them.
Over the years, there have been several other incidents of elephants attacking people due to the mahua brew.