A video of an elephant damaging and tossing a car around on the Kothagiri-Mettupalayam highway in the Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu has gone viral on the internet. The incident seems to have been captured from a distance by a person travelling on the highway.
The clip shared on the microblogging site X, formerly Twitter by news agency ANI opens to show a white sedan parked on the highway, as an elephant slowly moves around it. After a few seconds, the pachyderm begins to push the car around and damages it. One of the doors of the car can be seen open and the elephant lifting the rear seat in the air and throwing it on the ground. Amidst all this, the traffic on the highway is disrupted.
"A wild elephant damages a car on the Kothagiri-Mettupalayam highway in the Nilgiri district of Tamil Nadu," reads the caption of the post shared along with the video by ANI.
Shared just an hour back, the clip has already amassed 20,000 views and is counting.
Depleting forest areas have increased man-animal conflict. A wild elephant had entered a residential area of Ulikkal town in Kannur district of Kerala creating panic among the residents early this month.
As the elephant entered the town, the panic-stricken people ran helter-skelter for safety but three residents were injured in the melee. Following this, the police and forest department initiated action to send the elephant back to the forest, as reported by PTI.
While last month, a semi-paralytic man was trampled to death by an elephant in Koranchal near Cherambadi of Wayanad district. The incident took place when victim Kumar was walking to buy provisions from a plantation.