Elephant Charges At Bike, Forces Riders To Run In Hair-Raising Footage

A video that is being widely circulated on social media and over messaging platforms shows an elephant charging at a two-wheeler, forcing its riders to abandon the vehicle and run. The video was shared on Twitter this morning by Indian Forest Services officer Susanta Nanda and filmed by Twitter user Sreedhar V, who said the incident occurred when the bike riders ignored safety instructions and decided to cross the road at the same time as the elephants.

"Two-wheeler riders did not listen to FD staff and decided to go ahead while elephants were crossing and got charged at," he wrote while sharing the video on Twitter Tuesday. 

The 16-second-long video shows a car parked some distance away from the elephants on the road, waiting for them to pass through. When two people on a bike decide to ignore the forest department's warning and try to cross the road, an elephant charges at them in the horrifying footage. The men are seen getting off the bike and running before the elephant loses interest in them and rejoins its herd. 

According to Mr Nanda, the elephant was walking with a young calf, which could explain its aggressive behaviour. "When the elephant is with calf, the gentle giant can be a real giant," he wrote while sharing the video on Twitter. 

Gently saying no. Enough is enough.
When the elephant is with calf, the gentle giant can be a real giant. pic.twitter.com/401n5IEFb5

— Susanta Nanda IFS (@susantananda3) April 29, 2020

The video has been viewed nearly 4,000 times on the microblogging platform, collecting several comments. 

Sir Notice the gentleness. Elephant in no way was trying to harm but only tried to scare off the people to protect its calf and after creating a safe distance left on its way. Elephants are ????

— Sam (@TheRealSam_02) April 29, 2020

Narrow escape????????

— Tapan panda (@coolkitu) April 29, 2020

A similar video that had gone viral in February showed a biker's narrow escape while crossing a road that had been blocked to allow an elephant to pass through.