Video Shows Elephant Who Killed Woman Returning To Attack Her Funeral
An elephant never forgets.
Berezovskaya / Shutterstock The phrase “elephants never forget” reached a whole new level earlier this month in India.
On June 10, an elephant viciously attacked and trampled Maya Murmu, a 70-year-old resident of Raipal Village in Odisha, India, while she was collecting water. She was taken to the hospital in critical condition, where she later passed away from her injuries.
Family members then brought Murmu back to the village to hold a funeral for her, but events took an unexpected turn.
The same elephant returned and attacked Murmu’s body.
A video shows the elephant attacking the funeral and trampling on the woman's body.
Villagers ran to safety while the vengeful elephant took its rage out on her body. The animal trampled Murmu and threw her up into the air. It also attacked her home and killed the goats living there.
The elephant also summoned other members of its herd to join in the attack on the village. The other animals targeted other homes and ate the grains being grown.
Reports of the attack sparked widespread discussion online.
In an odd turn of events, some social media users even sided with the elephant.
Several people noted how this is unusual behavior for elephants who are known to be empathetic and relatively placid.
Others attempted to figure out why the elephant acted the way it did. Many theorized that poaching in prior decades may have caused elephant populations to dislike humans as a whole.
“Wow, after reading the article it looks like there’s a possibility that behavior of this recent generation of elephants is a result of PTSD from severe poaching in the 80s and 90s,” one Twitter user said. “Developing in those depressing hard times without matriarchs or elders/siblings etc make you vengeful.”
“People forget that animals hold grudges,” another user said. “Maybe it was a work elephant who became resentful towards people in general.”
Animal attacks toward poachers seemingly out of vengeance have been well-documented.
A female leopard reportedly crossed the borders of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, two Indian states, to find a poacher who had stolen her cubs. Separate reports tell of a tiger in Kerala, India that tracked and killed the poacher who killed its family.
Elephant attacks are known to occur in much of Odisha due to the area’s widespread forests. According to data from the World Wildlife Foundation, over 100 people in India are killed by wild elephants each year.
Jonathan Alfano is a writer who focuses on news and entertainment topics. Follow him on Twitter to keep up with his content.