Banana-habituated jumbos stop buses

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT
Mysuru

Old habits die hard. Having got used to being fed bananas by truck and bus drivers, jumbos are now chasing big vehicles for the fruit given by passengers travelling in them.

A person travelling in a Tamil Nadu registration bus recorded a video of a wild elephant running towards a bus in search of bananas. After standing in front of the vehicle for a few seconds, the elephant vanished into the forest. This incident happened near Punajanur in Chamarajanagar on Monday and the video has gone viral.

The passenger recorded the elephant running towards the bus trumpeting and standing near the front window. After a while, it left on not getting anything.

The bus driver said in Tamil that jumbos stop the buses and trucks looking for any offering by passengers. The drivers on their part are used to seeing the jumbos and are pretty sure that they would not harm them.

A forest officer told News Trail that the drivers of trucks and buses offer bananas since jumbos are considered the avatar of Lord Ganesha. Even pachyderms are used to this and put their trunks inside the windows and accept the offering.

People have been told not make the offerings but they keep doing it. Once habituated, the elephants stay near the road and go near every vehicle seeking bananas from drivers.