Rogue Elephants

1895

They Leave Devastation and Death In Their Wake When on the Rampage.

The complete history of rogue elephants would make an interesting chapter. They seem to have decided to avenge man's wrongs against their kind. Some years ago one rogue actually took possession of a stretch of country in India 40 miles wide by 100 long and in a businesslike way proceeded to demolish everything in or about it. The animal rushed into the villages, took huts upon its tusks and tore them apart or tossed them until they fell in splinters. It chased the people away or killed them whenever it could, or, standing by the wrecked houses, it ate the grains and stores.

This elephant seemed remarkably intelligent. It entertained, in particular, a grudge against the watch towers or scaffolds. Whenever this rogue saw one, be would creep slyly, spring at it, push it to the ground and kill its occupants.

A famous rogue elephant named Mandla was owned by a rich man near Jubbulpoor, in central India. Suddenly it began to develop the characteristics of a "rogue" and attacked human beings wherever seen. It killed them so cruelly that it became widely known as "the man eater." He was finally destroyed by an organized effort of English army officers.

Another famous rogue took possession of a public road and attacked every passerby. Suddenly darting from the jungle, it would rush up to an ox cart, seize the driver with its trunk and disappear. Repeated raids of this kind so terrified the people that a large tract of land was to all intents and purposes deserted, but finally an English hunter determined to rid the country of the rogue. By careful inquiry he found that the elephant always seized the driver, and if there were two carts in company it chose the driver of the last. So he arranged two ox carts, putting a dummy driver upon the second, while upon the first was a stout bamboo cage, in which the hunter was to sit, rifle in hand. When all was ready, the two ox carts started one day, followed by the hopes and best wishes of the community.

The fatal district was soon reached, and about half way down the road there came a crash, and the monstrous elephant, dark and ugly, dashed upon the party. Making directly for the last cart, with a vicious swing of its trunk it seized on the dummy man and made off, receiving as it went a shot from the cage. But the oxen, alarmed by the uproar, ran away, leaving the road and taking to the open country. They tipped the cart over, nearly killing the caged driver and the English sportsman. What the elephant thought when it tore the dummy into shreds must be imagined. Some months later, however, this rogue was driven away and caught. — C. F. Holder in St. Nicholas.