Narrow escape for U.K. tourists as wild elephant attacks car

The car that overturned after an elephant attacked it at Devikulam, near Munnar, on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A group of foreign tourists from the United Kingdom had a miraculous escape after a wild tusker attacked their moving car at Munnar on Saturday.

The incident occurred near Signal Point on the Munnar-Devikulam road, forest officials said.

Liverpool natives Philip Lorder, Shirley Lorder, Reggi Thomas, and Carlyn Thomas were en route to Thekkady from Munnar. The car was driven by Ratheesh, a native of Thiruvananthapuram.

When the vehicle reached Signal Point, a wild tusker, locally called Ottakompan, came out of an eucalyptus plantation and charged at the car, kicking and overturning it, they said quoting local people.

However, those inside the vehicle escaped unhurt. The elephant then ran across the road an gored a cow to death. The tusker then camped at a nearby tea plantation, from where the Forest department’s rapid response team chased the animal back to the forest.

A Forest department official said the tourists continued their journey in another vehicle. “The doors of the car on one side were damaged in the wild elephant attack,” he said.

“I tried to turn the vehicle in the opposite direction, but the elephant rushed in and kicked it,” the car driver later told the media.

Television visuals showed the visibly shaken tourists standing near the damaged car.

(with inputs from PTI)