After a video of the event from Dharmapuri district’s Hogenakkal forest region went viral on social media, a man has been detained in Tamil Nadu for bowing down to a wild elephant.
A man can be seen standing with his hands up in the roughly one-minute-long video while wearing a white shirt, a dhoti, and a green shawl over his neck. He is shown kneeling and prostrating before the wild animal, despite being warned by others not to approach it. The elephant may be heard moving back and forth while trumpeting.
The individual was named as K Murugesan from Pennagaram by a Dharmapuri forest office officer, who added that he was detained on Friday on trespass-related charges under several provisions of the Tamil Nadu Forest Act and the Wildlife (Protection) Act.
“We received a complaint on Thursday night, and as a result, we looked through the footage and located the subject. He is a local who rode his two-wheeler along that path, he is not a tourist. We discovered that he was under the influence of alcohol when he committed the offense over the course of the investigation,” the officer stated.
Elephants frequently cross the road since there are forests on both sides of it, and visitors are asked not to bother them.
The event was tweeted about by Supriya Sahu, assistant chief secretary for the environment, climate change, and forests. “This individual has been detained after being apprehended. Congrats, DFO Dharmapuri. This ought to discourage others,” she wrote on Friday.
Many online users chastised the guy for agitating the wild elephant after the video went viral and asked the forest service to take action.
This person has been arrested and taken into custody.
Well done DFO Dharmapuri. This should serve as a deterrent to others pic.twitter.com/LhKOQnZls9— Supriya Sahu IAS (@supriyasahuias) May 12, 2023
