Trio of men arrested for harassing herd of wild elephants and filming the act


Forest officials in western India arrested three youths on Monday (October 29), on charges of harassing a herd of elephants and filming the act.

Sources said the forest department personnel of Champua forest in Keonjhar district, Odisha in western India, found locals from Kainta village were chasing away a herd of 23 elephants which had strayed into human settlements near the area.

Despite the danger, three local youths tried to move closer to the herd, harassing and teasing them with sticks. One of them then tried pulling their tails and beating them with sticks, again very unsafely among the large wild animals.

The three were arrested under Wildlife Protection Act 1972, DFO Santsoh Joshi said. The accused were produced in court after their arrest, and were remanded into judicial custody after their bail pleas were rejected.

The actual incident occurred around October 11 and came to light after the youths posted a video of the entire act to social media.

The accused were identified as Debashis Behera of Rajia, Mohammed Ismail and Abdul Halim of Malanguda.