Encounter With Wild Tusker in My Mahindra Bolero


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Being an avid wildlife enthusiast and an elephant lover, am always in awe of these gentle giants that are the lord of our jungles. The forests would be less exciting without these magnificent pachyderms. I have always been associated with the Project Elephant and have come across charging / raging bulls, been chased about and also trampled nearly twice. My interest was to study the behaviour of solitary wild bulls during different seasons, their migratory pattern & their intense aggression / display during 'musth'. Am Boring you all right ?:offtopic:

During a recent field work in the Nilgiris Biosphere, it so happened that the four of us were returning for lunch and some rest to our forest house...when we heard a shrilling trumpet from a wild tusker which was just about to the right of us. This was perhaps the bull responsible for a few unfortunate human deaths which escalated to a new high according to statistics in the neighboring villages. He had been very elusive & always stayed away from being noticed by villagers / forest department guards. This massive 3 tonner appeared just out of nowhere all of a sudden, mock charged and displayed absolute aggression ! Since i was behind the wheel & petrified, managed to just switch off the engine & run for cover. I was the last to get out of the Bolero as my companions had bolted to a shed near by. I knew i was running out of time.

This beast was irritated & annoyed by the rattling engine noise of the DI engine. I was happy that the robust Bolero was able to withstand all his inquisitive pressures & tramples. We finally had to shoo him away to get close to our Bolero. Not to mention that he chew off my expensive 'woodland' trek shoes ![lol]

I do hope you enjoy these sequential pictures that i clicked at the time of the encounter. Cheers !
 

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Nairrk

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Re: An Encounter with a Wild Tusker in my Mahindra Bolero

Wow..what an encounter. It looks like the Elephant liked your Bolero[;)]

Anyway, it is good that you all escaped unhurt from that wild beast.

And ineed, stunning pictures - need no explanation[clap]
 

bhvm

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An Interesting encounter indeed. The bolero took weight of elephant's foot on the hood, Without caving in. That speaks about the robustness of the vehicle entirely.
 
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I do hope you enjoy these sequential pictures that i clicked at the time of the encounter. Cheers !
The left front door was opened. The elephant did not try anything inside. You are lucky that only little damages to the vehicle. Well, you clicked all sequential pictures. Admire your presence of mind.
 
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Hey Neetesh, I am petrified seeing the pictures only.


Just tell us in some more details as to how and where you all had taken shelter. And how did you all manage to shoo it away. Were you all not afraid that it might come back the moment you all return to the car.


Hats off to the Bolero which also escaped unhurt. That bull sure tried to test it from all sides.
 

bhvm

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This massive 3 tonner appeared just out of nowhere all of a sudden, mock charged and displayed absolute aggression ! Since i was behind the wheel & petrified, managed to just switch off the engine & run for cover. I was the last to get out of the Bolero as my companions had bolted to a shed near by. I knew i was running out of time
Since the engine was running and you were already at the drivers seat, I wonder if it was better to just drive the vehicle and get away from the beast ASAP (but smoothly) rather than abandoning it? Or were there some details I missed?
 
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Wow, thats quite a situation. You did wisely to abandon the Bolero. Tuskers can easily topple them off. And probably a moving car (as similar dimensions as the biggie) would have made the bull more aggressive & charging at the car, and more damage. And not in the least, you still had the calm-head to click photos. Kudos to you, buddy.
 

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