There are a fair few animals in the animal kingdom who love a good tipple, and elephants are no exception to this.
Usually, drunken animals tend to get a little leery – just like their human counterparts.
However, this particular animal binge sesh ended with a bit of a darker twist.
Jumbo Gate-Crashers
Residents in a quiet East Indian village on the borders of the states of Orissa and West Bengal were preparing for an upcoming local festival.
They had been brewing hooch, a fermented rice-based drink, for some time.
Stockpiling their brewing efforts together in earthenware vessels, the residents of the village were shocked and horrified when a 70-strong herd of Indian elephants wandered into town and instantly found their boozy cache.
The big gray gate-crashers proceeded to gulp down the entire lot, and then proceeded to make merry and wreak drunken havoc.
Drunken Carnage
The herd of elephants then proceeded to rampage through the village, falling asleep “hither and thither, throwing life completely haywire”.
As anyone who has ever seen an elephant will know, they are huge! Now imagine how devastating just one drunken elephant would be if it fell asleep on your house.
Now, imagine 70 of them all as drunk as the proverbial sailor, smashing their way through houses, trampling over market stalls, and falling on people.
In the ensuing drunken carnage, the herd was responsible for the deaths of 3 people, as well as countless amounts of damaged properties.
Not An Isolated Incident
As India continues to grow and expand, elephants are becoming less and less scared of humans – coming into contact with people more frequently.
To avoid exhausting food in one area, most of India’s elephant herds are becoming migratory.
Despite the best efforts of the authorities, clear and safe migration channels for the herds haven’t been properly established.
What’s worse is that migrating elephants are becoming more and more fond of breaking into booze reserves when they find them.
One expert said that “There are elephants who are getting a taste for food that humans prepare because it is tastier, stronger-smelling and often more nutritious and that include rice- or molasses-based drinks. Some go looking for it.”
Although roughly 100 elephants are killed by farmers a year in India, a whopping 400 people are killed every year by elephants – a figure which shows no signs of going down.
So if you’re ever in India and you see a herd of boss-eyed elephants staggering towards you, then make your getaway as quickly as you can!
They’ve probably been boozing and they’re coming to paint the town red!
