Headlines like this don’t come around every day. According to the Times of India, on Sunday a herd of 50-odd inebriated elephants ransacked a village and trampled paddy crops around the eastern village of Dumurkota, India, after getting wasted on moonshine.
Apparently the strong smell of Mahua drink drew the elephants out of the forest and they proceeded to raid the shop that was selling it. They guzzled down almost 500 litres of the stuff (I know, right? Best drinking buds ever) and then hit the streets to cause some chaos and find more booze.
The villagers, with the help of divisional forest officers, finally managed to push the herd back across the Kangsabati river where they wore it off with some Aspirin and a Bloody Mary (I’m just kidding about that last part, I have no idea how elephants deal with hangovers).
Nonetheless, despite getting the situation under control again the result of their wild rampage was the destruction of a large part of their village and cotton crops which will cost the northern Indian village dearly as it is their only means of survival.
Police chief Asish Samanat said the elephants behaved just like other drunks: “Aggressive and unreasonable but much much larger (duh) and that “They will more than likely have a dragon of a hangover tomorrow.”
Source: Times of India
I know, it sounds ridiculous, but you just can’t make this stuff up. It reminded me of our own African elephants who also fancy a tipple every now and again. They get hold of overripe marulas, it ferments in their stomachs and then it’s party time! I found a YouTube clip of them getting absolutely obliterated. Check out the ostrich at 1:24, it’s completely legless. Enjoy.
Main image taken (and slightly butchered, sorry Isak) from Isak Pretorius’ epic photo in our Top 15 Elephant Pictures. Do yourself a favour and check out our gallery of his images here. Simply amazing.
