The incident occurred after a herd of elephants had wandered into the streets of the Chandan Nukat village in the province of Meghalaya, in northeastern India, in search of food. However, instead of food, they came across barrels of rice beer. After drinking the homebrew, the drunken animals rampaged across rice fields and banana plantations.
The deaths happened when an adult male tried to rub his back against a high-voltage electric pole, which subsequently toppled under his weight, causing the live wires to come crashing down on the his back. Five more elephants from the herd, including three calves, then rushed to his rescue, each subsequently receiving a fatal electric shock.
"Some of the elephants were charred partly, while others bled through their trunks after the electric shock," the agency quotes Kushal Konwar Sharma, a wildlife expert, as saying.
More of the elephants could have shared the same fate, but villagers who had witnessed the incident chased the herd away from danger.
The state administration of Meghalaya said that the animals often go berserk in the region, destroying houses and killing people. The giant mammals are known to prefer beer, which is more nutritious and rich in micro-elements, to their ordinary food.
