Keonjhar: As many as 24 elephants enjoyed ‘mahua’, a traditional country liquor, and found sleeping for hours in Keonjhar forest.
The incident took place at Shilipada cashew forest in Keonjhar district. They found 24 jumbos in deep sleep where they had placed mahua flowers in the water in large pots for fermentation.
According to a villager, they went into the jungle at around 6 am to prepare liquor and found that all the pots were broken and the fermented water was missing. They found the herd of elephants sleeping and concluded that they must have drank the fermented water and slept.
The villagers tried waking up the jumbos, but they failed. They informed the forest department.
On being informed, the forest personnel reached Patana forest range. They played loud drums to wake up the herd. The elephants then woke up and went deep inside the forest.
There were nine tuskers, six females and nine calves.
Ms Kalinga