Elephant munches on potatoes after stopping truck

Elephants entering farm land and destroying food grains is a common incident in the state and has been often reported along with cases of villagers being killed in elephant attacks.

But Sunday's incident was something different from what is usually witnessed in different parts of the state. Some truck drivers and people passing through the forests of Garhbeta in West Midnapore have witnessed a completely bizarre sight when a tusker stopped a truck loaded with potatoes and started eating them by removing the tarpaulin cover.

Nobody, however, dared to cross the truck which was stopped by the elephant in the middle of National Highway 60. While some drivers gathered courage to get down from their vehicles to see the elephant in action from a close quarter, others were found to be capturing the moment on their mobile phones. The elephant did not care what the people were doing around it and went ahead with its work. The elephant took out some potatoes from the truck and ate them. It dropped some on the road and then picked them up with its trunk and started eating again.

Some of the truck drivers shouted at the top of their voices to drive it away but nothing was enough to make a full grown elephant get scared.

Vehicles plying through the area on Sunday morning remained stranded for nearly an hour till the forest department officials reached the spot. Some of the locals who came to see the incident said it might have been too hungry after failing to get some food in the forest.

The forest department employees burst fire crackers near the elephant but it remained unmoved. Few minutes later the animal changed its mind and entered the forest area to a great relief of the forest department officers. The traffic then became normal after almost an hour.