Six passengers and two crew members of a Kerala State Road Transport Corporation bus had a narrow escape when the vehicle was attacked by a wild elephant on the Pathanamthitta-Gavi ghat road on Wednesday evening.
The incident occurred around 9.15 p.m. when the Moozhiyar-bound KSRTC bus from Thiruvananthapuram reached Chora-kakki in the deep forests.
According to KSRTC sources, the driver of the bus stopped the vehicle seeing the wild elephant and calf on the middle of the ghat road.
The pachyderm, however, turned violent at the sight of the bus and ran forward and charged at the vehicle. The animal smashed the front glass pane of the bus with its trunk. However, the driver kept the engine running and the animal and the calf retreated to the forests after a while.
Bus driver P. Manoj and conductor Arun Vaishakh attached to the Venjaramoodu depot took the vehicle and passengers safely to nearby Moozhiyar, the base station of the Sabarigiri hydro-electric project of the Kerala State Electricity Board.
Earlier instances
Wild animals attacking vehicles passing through the ghat road is not new in this forest area. A woman engineer attached to KSEB had a narrow escape when a jeep carrying her was attacked by a wild elephant on the Moozhiyar-Gavi Road two years ago. The jeep was almost destroyed by the pachyderm.
The Forest Department has already issued directions to the public to avoid taking vehicles onto the forest road during night hours.