Elephants raid villages for beer

[Calypso]

6/4/02

Guwahati, India - A herd of wild elephants with a taste for local liquor are on the rampage in India's northeastern Assam state, crashing through fields and smashing down village huts to look for their favourite rice-brew tipple.
Forest officials said they had received reports of destruction by the elephants in many parts of northern Assam during the past two weeks, especially in the tea garden areas where people traditionally brew copious volumes of rice beer.
"Elephant herds have taken a fancy to drinking rice beer after entering tea garden labour colonies. In the process, they are smashing down many mud and thatch-roofed huts," a wildlife ranger said.
He said the runs were equally devastating before and after the drunken bouts.
"Most of the villagers, apprehending trouble from the elephant herds, stay huddled together at night. Thankfully, nobody has been trampled to death," the official said.
The herd of 200 elephants are believed to have crossed over into Assam from the neighbouring state of Arunachal Pradesh, looking for food and water.
Forest cover depleted
Their drunken exploration has again highlighted the issue of how a depleting forest cover in the region was leading to more elephant encroachments of human settlements.
Last year, more than 100 people were trampled to death by the pachyderms in Assam alone.
"More and more elephants are now straying out of the forests and making their way to villages and even cities due to loss of forest cover," said Kushal Konwar Sharma, a noted elephant expert.
"This is indeed very disturbing behaviour as the animals generally get highly agitated once they are detached from the herd."
Assam is home to at least 5 500 of India's total 10 000 elephant population.
Wildlife rangers said villagers in order to protect their properties had killed more than 200 elephants in Assam during the past five years, some of them brought down by poison-tipped arrows.
People also like the elephant meat and hack out their ivory tusks, which fetch a hefty price in the international market - a kilo is worth about 15 000 rupees ($300).
A full-grown elephant have tusks weighing up to 10kg, which can earn poor villagers an amount equal to more than a year's earning.
Poisoned 15 elephants
In September last year, villagers close to the Nameri National Park in northern Assam poisoned wild 15 elephants to death with a highly-toxic organo-phosphorous pesticide, forest officials said.
Villagers shrug off the elephant killings, saying they have to protect their lives and properties themselves as the forest authorities were not doing anything.
"We cannot just wait and watch our homes being destroyed by the elephants and our people being trampled to death," Tarini Das, a peasant at the worst-hit Panpur forest reserve in northern Assam, said.
The Assam wildlife authorities have asked the federal government for permission to allow the capture of wild elephants to minimise the damage caused.
The capture of wild elephants under five feet tall, or those pregnant or nursing female elephants, is banned under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972, without a special permit from the Ministry of Forests and Environment. - Sapa-AFP

[86Dude]

ROFLMFAO. That is, by far, the stupidist **** I have read in some time. Those crazy Indians. Next they'll stap nukes to their backs and send them over the border.

Elephant at AA meeting: "My name is Dumbo, and I have a problem"

[92Notch]

LOL!!!! That's great

[Cd.]

Maybe the Elephants are from Pakistan. All liquor is banned there. It might be a Pakistani conpiracy.

[jwreck]

That rocks!!

[Manu]

My beer!

[ChaoticThoughts]

And they have a built-in beer bong!

[mayaneagle]

what does ROFLMAO mean??

[The Frog]

Rolling
On
Floor
Laughing
My A**
Off

[86Dude]

Originally posted by TheFrog
Rolling
On
Floor
Laughing
My A**
Off

Or in my case
Rolling
On
Floor
Laughing
my F'ing
A$$
Off