Elephant gone wild: 17 injured as chaos erupts at Kerala festival | WATCH

Viral News: In a nerve-wracking incident at the Puthiyangadi 'nercha' during the BP Angadi annual festival in Malappuram district of Kerala, 17 people were injured, with one seriously injured. The mishap occurred late last night in Tirur where a crowd had gathered to watch the procession featuring five elephants decorated with golden plates. This festival is known for its majestic elephants, which made the scene turn into chaos when the elephant, Pakkathu Sreekuttan, became wildly agitated.

Panic breaks out as elephant runs amok into crowd

Video footage of the incident captures the elephants marching through the crowd, with people trying to take pictures of the scene on their cameras. However, Sreekuttan's actions quickly spiralled out of control when the elephant, despite the mahout's best efforts, ran amok into the crowd. The animal's sudden rampage sent the crowd into a frenzy, with people running for their lives. Amid the chaos, an elephant threw one man into the air and left him with severe injuries. The victim was immediately taken to MIMS Hospital in Kotakkal, where he continues receiving serious injury treatment.

Here we go again, another elephant that has lost it because of abuse, stress, trauma... When will they learn?

Tirur, Malappuram district of Kerala pic.twitter.com/8cQs0zQ74c

— Christina (@CWitvrouwen) January 8, 2025

While the main cause of injury occurred because of the attacking elephant, most other injuries were caused in stampede-like conditions after the crowd ran for their lives to get away from the scene. Several men tried to chain up the animal, but it took almost two hours before the elephant was finally subdued and tied to a mast for further incidents to not occur.

A growing pattern of elephant-related incidents

This is not the first such case in recent weeks. Last week, a 37-year-old man from the Cholanaikkan community lost his life due to a wild elephant that stampeded on him when he was on his way back to his tribal village from dropping some children at a hostel in Nilambur this week. He and others had gone out there to drop off children at the hostel.

Another heart-wrenching incident came in the first half of the year when a 45-year-old mahout and his nephew were killed as a temple elephant in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, trampled them. The temple elephant, known as Deivanai, attacked Sivabalan who had tried to enter the elephant's enclosure that resulted in fatal contact.