Elephants go on the rampage at VIP wedding
Jumbo trouble
Apparently irked by celebratory firing at a wedding reception of two senior Bahujan Samaj Party leaders in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut town, two elephants went on the rampage damaging several vehicles and forcing the VIP guests to flee for their lives.
Apparently irked by celebratory firing at a wedding reception of two senior Bahujan Samaj Party leaders in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut town, two elephants went on the rampage damaging several vehicles and forcing the VIP guests to flee for their lives.
The incident occurred on Wednesday night at the wedding reception of BSP MPs Munkad Ali and Qadir Rana on the outskirts of Meerut. Ironically, the elephants were brought in to welcome guests which included several UP ministers and legislators.
In all, there were 13 elephants, 15 camels and 42 horses to welcome the guests arriving to attend the wedding reception.
According to police sources here, the supporters of the two MPs began incessantly firing in the air to celebrate the occasion, which continued for about an hour.
Irked by the indefinite firing, two of the elephants went berserk and ran towards the parking lot and began trampling the vehicles parked there.
The mahout of one of the elephants was thrown away by the animal and sustained injuries while trying to control the pachyderm, sources said.The incident caused considerable panic at the event and a number of VIP guests ran for cover.
The elephants were then taken to the nearby Meerut-Delhi bypass road where they continued to chase people and overturn vehicles. Forest department officials and police teams remained helpless spectators as the chaos led to a huge traffic jam on the highway.
The elephants were finally brought under control after an hour and were taken elsewhere. Other elephants were also removed from the reception venue.
A senior police official said that the long celebratory firing might have irritated the elephants.
According to the forest department officials, the sound of the hooter of the VIP vehicles or the wedding band might have also been responsible for the mayhem.
However, no case has yet been registered against the persons responsible for gun firing or those bringing the elephants to the wedding venue.
No police official was ready to offer any comment on who had brought these animals.
