Watch: Angry elephant charges at bus, smashes windshield

A video of an angry elephant charging at a bus in Tamil Nadu has gone viral. The elephant can be seen shattering the bus’ windshield. 

This comes as the bus was ferrying government employees from Kotagiri to Mettupalayam on Sunday. In the video the elephant smashes the glass with its tusks as passengers scream in shock.

It tries to attack once more by rearing its head back and charging at the windshield again. This makes the driver get up and herd passengers to the back of the bus. Supriya Sahu, Principal Secretary, Environment, Climate Change and Forests, at the Government of Tamil Nadu, shared the video on Twitter. She lauded the driver for keeping his cool in the situation. 

“Huge respect for the driver of this Government bus in Nilgiris who kept his cool even under the terrifying hits on the bus from an agitated tusker,” Ms Sahu wrote while sharing the clip. “He helped passengers move back safely, in an incident today morning. That’s why they say a cool mind works wonders,” she added.

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Fortunately, the elephant finally moved away without causing any further damage to the bus. The video has garnered nearly 70,000 views on Twitter. 

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Many praised the driver’s presence of mind. One of the users wrote, “Presence of mind..Drivers need this courage and coolness to handle such situations..Reversing the Bus in a Ghat section when an animal conflict is so risk but still he handled it maturedly. TNSTC can proud of its drivers”, another one adding to it, “Extraordinary brilliant helping passengers by using high presence of mind,  what a talent !!!”

A user was concerned because of the lack of elephant corridors and tweeted, “for this time went well. why aren’t there corridors so the elephant can walk or cross in peace ? Try to respect the elephants , we invaded their land !”