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Journalism of Courage
The construction of roads across a forested landscape often means that people encounter wild animals like elephants, on and around the roads. Instead of patiently waiting for the animals to pass, people often try to sneak pictures with the animals, which puts themselves and the animals at risk.
On Wednesday, Indian Forest Service officer Susanta Nanda shared a video that showed a group of men running away from an elephant herd. While sharing this clip, Nanda wrote, “For having a selfie, they not only do foolish things but do them with enthusiasm…”.
While some people chastised the people in the video for deliberately provoking the elephants, a few others pointed to the rising instances of human-elephant conflict in which the elephants began frequenting villages and disrupting local life.
Echoing the former sentiment, a Twitter user wrote, “They could outrun the elephant herd because the elephant allowed them to escape with a scare. Had they tried to harm them, these three idiots would have had no chance. If they entered the woods, it would have been even worse.”
Expressing a different opinion, another person wrote, “Real life happening same to villagers in Block Hindol, Dhenkanal district Odisha without any selfie. People are scared to out home evening, lot of life gone. Elephants trying to take selfie. Life is miserably pathetic sir”.
