Herd of 50 drunk elephants ransack village after downing 500 litres of alcohol

Stock image. Getty

A herd of 50 drunk elephants caused havoc in an Indian village after gulping down 500 litres of alcohol.

The animals destroyed three houses, a shop stocking Mahua and ruined crops in Dumurkota, east India.

The Daily Mail reports that after drinking 18 containers of Mahua, they ransacked adjoining huts to find more liquor.

According to the Times of India, the animals were attracted to the strong smell of Mahua and were drawn out of the forest, raiding the shop which stocked the drink.

Villagers gathered and managed to drive the herd away before forestry officials tried to get the animals to cross a nearby river.

'Unfortunately these animals live in close proximity to man and they recognised the smell of the drink,' police spokesman Asish Samanat told the Daily Mail.

Samanat said the elephants were similar to drunk humans in that they were 'aggressive and unreasonable', but were 'much, much bigger.'

Police asked the villagers for help in escorting them back to the town where they arrived from on Friday night.

Inspector Samanat said: 'They'll have one heck of a hangover.'

There are only around 50,000 adult Asian elephants left in the wild - even though they have no natural predators.

Asian elephants are smaller than African elephants and even though they are easier to tame, they can charge at speeds of up to 30mph.

Related articles

Elephant poo coffee, anyone? Hotel's latest treat for guests
Watch: Zoo elephant speaks Korean
Baby elephant rescued from well

Sign up to our weekly newsletterFollow us on TwitterBecome a fan on Facebook