Couple On Scooter Crash Into Mahout: Even Elephant Runs Away! [Video]

Indian roads and the drama they carry are phenomenal. The bizarre part about road safety here is that even if you ride safe, it isn’t certain that you would be safe. Other drivers/ riders could also cause accidents. India is as diverse with the nature of road accidents as it is with its cultures. A few months ago, we saw a careless couple on scooter crash into a mahout ( the person who handles an elephant), throwing him off by a couple of meters, and making the elephant panic (!) The video shows the frightened elephant running away from the scene…

Even elephant running away…
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The Incident

Elephants are usually transported on trucks, to various locations. In this case, the truck was parked by the road, the elephant got out and the mahout was comforting the elephant after it got down the truck, when the scooter crashed in. This incident is from Kerala, the exact location of which is not known.

There were other mahouts guiding the elephant through the process. One of them is seated on the elephant. People in most parts of Kerala love watching elephants- be it elephants being presented at festivals or just them being transported. In this case, people have gathered to watch the elephant get down the truck.

As soon as the elephant got down and the mahout started comforting it, a careless scooter rider rammed into one of the mahouts on the ground. The scooter was coming so fast  that the impact threw the victim away by a couple of meters. The video of the entire drama was filmed by someone who later shared it on social media. It soon went viral and gathered tens of thousands of views.

A quick look at the video will make you think that it was lady riding it. However, take a closer look and you will understand that it was a couple, and the woman was just the pillion. The impact made her slip to the front and the rider completely lost control. The two of them fell down. The elephant got scared by the entire action and its sound and tried to run away. One of the mahouts were still sitting on top of it. The panicky elephant also made the onlookers get scared and run for their lives.

Luckily the elephant did not harm anyone who was around, or the mahout. The elephant ran straight to the road. Even though many temples in India have rituals involving elephants, instances like these could unsettle the calm of these animals, which could then lead to disasters. Elephants, if you see, are quite delicate at heart and get scared easily- not to mention in cases such as these.

Panicky elephants often charge at human beings, and several such incidents have been reported from Kerala over the past few years. There have been instances when elephants have killed humans. Here, this careless scooter rider is to be blamed, as he could have caused a bigger mishaps, if the stars were a little different. Ideally, the truck carrying the elephant should have stopped in some open ground for it to get down. Or at least they should have blocked traffic on the road where the truck was parked.

Elephant attacks on vehicles isn’t one-off incidents. We have seen herds of wild elephants attacking a Hyundai car, throwing Maruti Swift around, and charging at Royal Enfield riders. It is important to exercise extra caution when dealing with these animals.