‘Elephant spat it out’: Forest official on viral video of animal ‘eating’ a helmet in Assam

As onlookers watch the scene unfold in astonishment, a person, probably the bike owner, is shocked. “Areey…mere helmet hi toh chala gaya…Areey baba de dijiye helmet. Kaise jaunga main? (Ohho, now my helmet is gone…please give back my helmet. How will I go now?)” he is heard in the background.

The incident took place on Tuesday morning in Guwahati’s Panjabari area adjacent to the Army Cantonment in Narengi.

Talking to IndianExpress.com, a forest official in the area said the elephant is safe as it did not ‘eat the helmet’. “After picking up the helmet, the elephant kept it in its mouth for a while. However, it went a short distance further and spat it out,” said Jayanta Deka, DFO, Guwahati Wildlife Division.

He added that the elephant then proceeded to crush the helmet with its foot before heading back to the forest.

As the video created a huge buzz online, it left netizens divided. While some joked about how would the biker explain the situation to the traffic police, others thought the video was very sad, saying the elephant swallowed the helmet because it was looking for food.

Here’s how netizens had reacted to the clip:

Someone please tell this hungry gentle giant that helmet is a life saver only by wearing it & not by eating it 😁 pic.twitter.com/rgA3bjoJgy

— Praveen Angusamy, IFS 🐾 (@PraveenIFShere) June 10, 2021

Must have playfully taken possession, since it resembles a ball.
Would have been interesting to see the full video what it eventually does with the same 😊

— Azam Siddiqui (@azam24x7) June 10, 2021

Hope it gets expelled without causing any harm to the elephant.

— উৎপল বৰপূজাৰী Utpal Borpujari (@UtpalBorpujari) June 10, 2021

So. Did the elephant gobble out that helmet after realising it is not an edible thing?

— Nivedita Khandekar (@nivedita_Him) June 10, 2021

Funny but sad too, he has no place to go and probably is hungry

— Gaurav 🏆 x 19 🏆 x 6 (@boonysixx) June 10, 2021

“I can figure out a fake helmet when I feel one. This one is non ISI for sure.”

— Kaushik Barua (@Airawat) June 10, 2021

After that traffic police checked that guys without helmet. Think the conversation between them😆😆

— Sawan (@Sawankumar5510) June 11, 2021

I think the person apply coconut oil so elephant found the smell in helmet and thought it as coconut

— Rajeev Choudhury (@RajeevChoudhury) June 11, 2021

He thinks it's some kind of a coconut and taking it. He will break it open to find the edible part inside! Hopefully he won't swallow the helmet. 🙏🏽

— Mukesh.Saravana Kumar (@saravana_mukesh) June 11, 2021

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Guwahati city shares its boundary with the 78.64-sq km Amchang Wildlife Sanctuary. It is not uncommon for elephants to loiter into the military cantonment area — and even the city — often. In fact in May 2019, one elephant was at GS Road, an arterial road of Guwahati, and it took the forest authorities 18 hours to guide it back to the forest.

[With inputs from Tora Agarwala in Assam]