In a terrifying incident from Southern India’s Kerala, two elephants engaged in a violent confrontation, causing chaos among the attendees at the Aarattupuzha Temple on Friday.
After engaging in a tusk-to-tusk fight, the pachyderms scared all the attendees. However, members of the elephant squad arrived and intervened to separate them, averting any tragedy. Fortunately, no injury was reported.
Viral video shows fierce attack
In the viral video shared on X by Samakalika Malayalam, one could see a religious gathering underway at the Aarattupuzha Temple, located in Thrissur district of the state. The tuskers were adorned beautifully with gold decorations for the arat rituals. Suddenly, one of the elephants charged towards the other.
Hit hard, the second tusker skidded a bit. Soon, the two pachyderms indulged in a game of brute power. This violent altercation initiated in a chaos among the bystanders and the crowd began to scatter away in an attempt to avoid getting crushed by the two warring giants.
A team of elephant squad members arrived at the scene to tame the violent tuskers. However, the elephants ran away from the scene, leaving the attendees in a state of fear.
What exactly happened?
According to local reports, the incident occurred at around 10:30 PM on Friday during the arat ritual procession at the Aarattupuzha Temple.
Guruvayur Ravikrishnan, the lead elephant of the temple procession, was involved in the fight. Despite attempts by Ravikrishnan to charge and wrestle with Sri Kumaran, another temple elephant, the situation was miraculously brought under control without any casualties.
Witnesses were initially alarmed by the confrontation between the two elephants. Many feared for their safety as the enraged animals clashed. However, the timely intervention of the elephant squad members prevented further escalation of the situation.
Elephants brought under control
Following the confrontation, the elephants ran away from the spot. Despite the efforts of the temple staff to bring the elephants under control, they remained elusive. However, the elephant squad members successfully managed to confine the elephants, ensuring the safety of the attendees and preventing any further incidents.
(The article is published under a mutual content partnership arrangement between The Free Press Journal and Connected to India)