Tourists had a lucky escape before a tusker approached their car and on finding nothing worth eating in it, overturned the car in the Mohaan area of Ramnagar forest division here on Monday. The elephant’s actions caused traffic jam on the road for some time and though no one was injured the car was damaged in the incident.
A Maruti Alto car was carrying tourists from Ramnagar to Ranikhet. When the car reached Mohaan, the driver saw a tusker approaching and all the occupants of the car abandoned the vehicle and ran into the woods. On reaching the vehicle, the jumbo searched it reportedly for food items and overturned the car on finding nothing worth eating inside it. Later, members of a forest department team and locals made noise to shoo the elephant into the jungle.
The Ramnagar forest division sub-divisional officer N Bharti informed that the irked elephant overturned the car on the route to the mountainous areas. Traffic on the route came to a standstill for some time till a departmental team reached the site and undertook necessary action to enable resumption of traffic on the road. The sub-divisional officer further informed that some months ago, the same elephant is believed to have raided stalled pick-up transporting ration to the mountains.
At that time, the jumbo tore into gunny sacks and consumed rice and flour. The elephant had acted similarly on one more occasion after that. Bharti said that if the persons affected by the latest incident submit any claim to the department, the forest department will pay compensation as per the regulations.