A herd of two dozen elephants were so drunk after drinking homemade alcohol by villagers in India that they collapsed and had to sleep off their heavy night of drinking.
The group of 24 elephants were walking through the jungle in the eastern state of Odisha when they came across large clay pots containing “muhua”, a traditional drink made from the flower of the Madhuca longifolia tree.
Locals from the village of Salipada left the pots of alcohol to ferment in the jungle – only to find the pots broken and a herd of elephants collapsed in a drunken stupor next to the broken pieces of pottery on the ground.
The herd, which numbered nine calves, devoured its contents and was so drunk that the locals could not rouse them from their deep sleep.
The elephants were not awakened from their drunken slumber until local conservationists arrived and began beating drums.
The herd, probably with a pounding headache from the mixture of alcohol and drums, managed to get up and slowly entered the depths of the forest.
The herd, which numbered nine calves, devoured its contents and was so drunk that the locals could not rouse them from their deep sleep.
“We went to the jungle around 6am to prepare muhua and found all the jars broken and the fermented drink missing,” Naria Sethi, a villager, told PTI news agency.
Sethi added: “We also noticed that the elephants were sleeping. They drank the fermented drink and became drunk.’
It is known that elephants used to drink “muhua” – sometimes with devastating consequences.
They love it. It is pure, it is tasty and it is powerful,” Kartick Satyanarayan, CEO of Wildlife SOS, told The Times.
“If they smell it, they can put their pockets in kitchens or break down walls to get to it. When they’re done, they stumble home, knocking down a single tree or house along the way.”
Some elephants have become addicted to “mahua” and crazy about the alcohol.
It had devastating consequences in April this year after a herd of elephants killed five people who were brewing the drink in the Jaisingh Nagar forest area.
Forest officials warned locals against brewing mahua after a herd of elephants spotted the forest. Elephants have a strong sense of smell and will be attracted to the strong mahua drink.
But some villagers ignored the warning and Lallu Kanwar (50), his wife Lalita (48) and their sister Devi Singh (38) died after the herd of elephants killed them next to pots of mahua in the forest.
A day earlier, Motilal Basor (60) and his wife Muliya Bai (55) were attacked by the same herd of elephants in the nearby Amjhor forest while they were collecting mahua.
But the herd that Salipada villagers found sleeping in the jungle did no harm to the locals and stumbled away.
Although it’s rare to find sleeping elephants, incredible photos last year showed China’s famous herd of roaming elephants pausing for a well-deserved rest after fleeing a game reserve after a record 300-mile cross-country trek.
The migrating herd of wild Asian elephants looks exhausted as the group lies together in a forest, legs spread and trunks on the ground
A baby elephant looks content as it rests its front legs on the back of another sleeping elephant in the forest in June
A baby elephant lies stretched out on the back of a sleeping elephant as the animals rest after their 300 mile run in June
The group of 15 wild Asian elephants broke out of a game reserve in Xishuangbanna Dai Prefecture and decided to cross into China.
Two months after their journey, they were seen in the countryside of Xinyang Township lying on the ground with their legs and trunks outstretched.
The herd appeared to sleep in a pyramid shape as a baby elephant clings to an adult’s leg, while one rests its trunk on the other.
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