Viral Video: Elephant attacks safari jeep in India's Kabini National Park

News of wild animals attacking humans is not new. In fact man-animal conflicts are rising in India over the last few years. Now a video has surfaced on Twitter that once again underlines the problem of such conflicts.

The video, shared by one Supriya Sahu IAS on Twitter, shows a wild elephant chasing a safari jeep. Purportedly, the incident happened in Kabini National Park, near Mysuru.

The video seems to have been shot inside the park. Only the heads of two persons are visible while a third one was shooting the video. The jeep was going in the path laid out for vehicles inside the national park.


All of a sudden, the elephant - who is standing very close to that vehicle's path - gives a chase to the jeep. However, the driver keeps his calm despite seeing a fully grown angry male elephant charging directly towards him at high speed and just inches away from catching him. The driver quickly engages the reverse gear and started driving in reverse. The elephant was really close to the jeep but the driver keeps his calm and continues to drive in reverse gear. After about 20 seconds, the elephant loses interest and gives up chasing and moves towards the jungle.


The video has since gone viral on Twitter with about 3 lakh views.

As per reports, over 1500 people have died in the last three years due to elephant attacks including 585 in 2019, 461 in 2020, and 532 in 2021.

Odisha reported the maximum number of deaths in elephant attacks in the last three years – 117 in 2019; 93 in 2020; and 112 in 2021.

To reduce elephant-human conflicts, India has notified several habitats as elephant reserves. So far India has established 32 elephant reserves. The govt has also announced several schemes to improve the habitats.