BINGE DRINKING ELEPHANTS

These Indian elephants must have watched TV news reports of American college students binge drinking.

TRUNK AND DISORDERLY! HERD OF 50 DRUNKEN ELEPHANTS RANSACK VILLAGE AFTER GULPING DOWN 500 LITERS OF ALCOHOL IN SHOP
Drawn out of forest by strong smell of Mahua liquor; ransacked three adjoining houses after finishing shop supply

By Mark Duell

Mail Online
November 8, 2012

Fifty drunken elephants caused havoc in an Indian village and destroyed three houses after gulping down an astonishing 500 litres of alcohol.

The animals destroyed a shop stocking Mahua and ruined crops in Dumurkota, east India, after drinking 18 containers of the alcoholic drink.

However they were not satisfied after the drinking session and ransacked adjoining huts to find more of the liquor, according to local reports.

The herd had been drawn out of a forest by the strong smell of Mahua and raided the shop stocking the drink, reported the Times of India.

But Dumurkota villagers managed to drive away the elephants after the incident and forestry officials then tried to get them to cross a nearby river.

‘Unfortunately these animals live in close proximity to man and they recognised the smell of the drink,’ police spokesman Asish Samanat said.

He added that the elephants were similar to a drunk human in that they were ‘aggressive and unreasonable’, but they were ‘much, much bigger’.

The elephants were said to be part of a herd of 120 that had arrived from another town on Friday night, before the havoc ensued on Sunday.

Police asked for help from villagers in escorting them back to the other town. ‘They'll have one heck of a hangover,’ Inspector Samanat said of the elephants.

Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants and easier to tame, although they can still charge at speeds of up to 30mph.

But there are only around 50,000 adult Asian elephants left in the wild - even though they have no natural predators.