A distressing video posted online shows a herd of four elephants jumping over a compound wall as they try to escape from a busy road where they had got cornered in. The footage was shot near Hosur, which borders Tamil Nadu and Karnatka. The elephants are seen jumping the wall to cross over to the forest, which is on the other side.
Though the video is quite old, it went viral after it was tweeted by an IFS officer, Parveen Kaswan.
Kaswan tweeted the video on September 11 with the caption, "Have you have ever seen #elephants jumping a wall. Things they have to do when nowhere to go. When blocked from all sides. This Old video from Hossur will make you wonder."
In the video, four elephants, including three adults and one calf, are seen trying to cross over a white wall on a busy road. Some of the vehicles had to stop in order to not disturb them. Many people also stopped to watch the elephants.
When the elephants realised that there was no alternative way, they turned back and climbed over a lower wall and then disappeared. While the adult elephants could easily climb over the wall, the younger calf was finding it difficult to jump and an adult gave it a little nudge and helped it climb up.
In the background, one man was heard speaking on the phone, informing the person on the other side that there were four elephants on the road.
Twitterati has expressed displeasure over the incident as such a situation was created by the people. One Twitter user replied to Kaswan's tweet saying, "The houses must have been built on the path used by the elephants for many generations."
Another user wrote, "This is unequivocally the result of habitat fragmentation."
Other users also claimed that the human population is the reason for the difficulties that wild animals have to face. Another Twitter user wrote, "Bloody! Most Destructive Species - Humans."
This was followed by other comments such as: "Effects of deforestation" and "Maharshi Raman once said if animals had means to communicate they would certainly ask for their rights. Very sad. We all are responsible for this situation in one way or another."
