Highlights
- The villagers tried to wake up the animals but to no avail. Following this, they informed the forest department.
- Upon reaching the spot, the forest department personnel in the jungle had to beat drums to wake the herd up.
People across the world love their fair share of alcohol. Whether it be college students gulping it down or a working professional holding his drink, everyone has their way to savour it.
But we humans encounter rare moments when animals show their penchant for intoxicants on rare occasions, and it’s always worth a chuckle.
One such case has come to light from a village in Odisha.
After devouring the water fermented with intoxicating flowers, a herd of elephants was found enjoying an excellent sleep session.
Villagers spotted drunk tuskers
On Tuesday, the Villagers living near Shilipada cashew forest in Keonjhar district were in for a surprising sight when they went inside the woodland to prepare ‘mahua’, a traditional country liquor.
Instead, they found a total of 24 jumbos, apparently drunk, sleeping near the place where mahua flowers were kept in water in large pots for fermentation.
“We went into the jungle at around 6 am to prepare mahua and found that all the pots were broken and the fermented water is missing. We also found that the elephants were sleeping. They consumed the fermented water and got drunk,” Naria Sethi, a villager, told PTI.
There were nine tuskers, six females and nine calves, he added.
The villagers tried to wake up the animals but to no avail. Following this, they informed the forest department.
The flowers of Mahua tree (Madhuca longifolia) are fermented to produce an alcoholic drink, also called Mahua. Tribal men and women in various parts of India traditionally make this liquor.
Forest department unsure about intoxication
Upon reaching the spot, the forest department personnel in the jungle had to beat drums to wake the herd up.
The elephants then went deep inside the forest, said Ghasiram Patra, the forest ranger.
However, the forest officials were unsure whether the elephants got drunk after consuming fermented mahua.
“Maybe, they were just resting there,” Patra said.
On the other hand, villagers insisted that they spotted the elephants sleeping in intoxicated conditions at places close to the broken pots on Tuesday.
Monkeys, roosters had their share too
In July this year, a monkey went on a rampage across the liquor shops in Raebareli, Uttar Pradesh. As per media reports, he was spotted stealing booze from the locals and numerous licensed shops. A video posted on Twitter showed the infamous monkey drinking from a can of beer.
A month before the monkey’s liquor run, a rooster in Maharashtra’s Pipari Village was reported to be addicted to alcohol. The bird was consuming Rs 2000 worth of liquor monthly.
The rooster owner had fed it with local liquor to treat the bird – who was refusing to eat or drink anything. The owner’s method had an unintended result, as he had to consult the doctors to ‘cure’ the rooster.
