Motorists’ narrow escape from charging elephant
Sumesh Rajan
25 November 2021
With widespread human expansion into the far reaches of jungles in the name of development, and wildlife facing shrinking habitats, man-animal conflicts are on the rise. This endangers both the wildlife and human beings alike. Roads passing through forest areas are prone to such encounters.
In one such instance, a motorist driving on a road on the forest stretch near Athirappilly in Kerala state of India, in the night had a scare when a tusker came charging at his vehicle. The video taken by the person accompanying the vehicle driver presents a scary picture. As the vehicle passes through the unlit road, vehicles coming from the opposite side speed off in a hurry sending alarm bells in the car’s occupants, one of whom shouts at the driver to back down as a tusker comes charging at them.
The driver slows down, and immediately reverses the vehicle even as the elephant comes charging. Luckily, though it was a harrowing experience for the car occupants, they had a narrow escape.
Wildlife wardens and activists say that wild elephants have started showing a behavioural change as they are using near-empty roads cutting through their habitats, while moving around. “It has been found that linear intrusions, like roads and railway lines, have adverse impact on natural wildlife habitats, including habitat loss and fragmentation, especially for Asian elephants that have large home ranges,” said one activist.
Comments
Post a Comment