Provoked elephant runs amok

Mahouts failed to pacify the amok elephant during a temple festival at Thottupura, Kerala, India, but members of the elephant squad offered a bunch of bananas to the tusker to tame it.

The tusker named Guruji Balnarayanan turned aggressive amid the festivities on Sunday evening, as the jumbo panicked after someone climbed on the elephant’s back pulled its tail while the festival rituals wre in progress at a house in Panthod. The two men who had climbed on the top of the elephant’s back escaped by jumping onto a nearby tree.

Local police have since charged a case for torturing the elephant and abusing the mahout.