In a sad and shocking incident in India, a young family of three had a run-in with a tusker elephant that resulted in injuries.
Satya Dehuri, Rashmita Dehuri, his wife, and their son, Dinabandhu Dehuri, were walking to a fair at around 8 pm when the elephant suddenly appeared.
The man took the young boy in his arms and watched in shock as the elephant attacked his wife with its trunk. The animal then turned its attention to the husband and boy, and attacked them.
The family’s screams managed to scare off the elephant, which ran into the Telkoi forest.
Forest authorities arrived at the scene and transported the injured family to a local hospital. The victims sustained serious injuries and had to be transferred to a more specialized hospital.
Residents of villages near the Telkoi forest are afraid of the tusker elephants and many people are afraid to leave their houses at night. Forest rangers advise residents that it can be dangerous to go out after dark.
Due to the increased shrinkage of animal territories, the conflict between humans and elephants in India is increasing, forcing humans and elephants to interact and coexist.
Climate change is also a major source of human-wildlife conflict. With water sources drying up, elephants are forced to seek new places to drink.
Sometimes elephants are injured by villagers protecting their crops, and the elephants retaliate.
A case of an elephant retaliating was reported last year in August after an elephant attacked its handler in Thailand for forcing it to work under difficult conditions.
The elephant, named Pom Pam, stabbed its 32-year-old handler with its tusks several times, ripping his body apart. Pom Pam had had her fill of working during an unbearable heatwave.
The handler had forced the 20-year-old elephant to haul rubber wood from a plantation for four days in the 89-degree heat.
Authorities found the huge elephant about 500 yards from the man’s body and had to shoot her with a sedative to allow rescue workers to retrieve the dead man’s remains.
Although elephants are generally known to be gentle, they can become quite dangerous when they are provoked.
The huge creatures can weigh up to 8,000 pounds, and their super-strong trunks can inflict serious injury, often resulting in fatalities.