An overconfident traveler discovered the hard way that elephants aren’t here to help you gain Instagram clout. After attempting to take a selfie with a huge wild elephant at a Karnataka temple on Sunday, R. Basavaraju, a tourist in southwest India, was trampled, left half-naked, and taken to the hospital.
Shocked spectators captured the now-viral footage, which shows the animal standing placidly by the side of the road before abruptly lifting its trunk and sprinting across the street, directly toward Basavaraju. He dashes into traffic in a panic, but he stumbles and falls facefirst into the asphalt. In a matter of seconds, the elephant catches up, mercilessly stomping on him while removing his pants and underpants.
According to witness Daniel Osorio, who spoke to Mail Online, the elephant had been contentedly eating carrots until Basavaraju approached too closely while holding a camera. The animal seemed startled by the flash, transforming a peaceful roadside nibble into a full-scale stampede. According to Osorio, this incident serves as a stark warning to abide by the regulations of the wildlife reserves and to defer to professional authorities rather than individuals walking through them when handling such circumstances.
A man who approached an elephant too closely to snap a picture was attacked in this video. The man was hurt. In #Karnataka’s Bandipur Tiger Reserve, the event occurred on [email protected]/DMprXC6R6s
August 11, 2025, TOI Bengaluru (@TOIBengaluru)
Basavaraju survived the attack in spite of overwhelming odds. After being taken to the hospital with serious injuries, he was later fined 25,000 Rupees, or about $285, for entering the forbidden forest region. He acknowledged his ignorance of wildlife safety regulations in a court-mandated apologetic video and asked people to avoid making the same mistake twice.
“Such reckless stunts not only endanger human lives but also provoke unpredictable and dangerous animal behavior,” the Forest Department stated bluntly. About 30,000 wild elephants live in India, making up 60% of all Asian elephants on the planet. This is the greatest population in the world. Although most of them lead calm lives, scientists warn that if they feel threatened or provoked, they may become quite aggressive.
A bloodied, bruised, and extremely fortunate Basavaraju is left to clamber to his feet and crawl to safety as the video concludes with the elephant halting over its downed victim before slowly plodding away.
Happy World Elephant Day. The Sumatra elephant is a beautiful animal, and we have been working to save it for many years.Twitter: pic.twitter.com/1ZZRRYEOAG
August 12, 2025, Robert Irwin (@RobertIrwin)
And don’t assume that this was an isolated incident. Attacks on elephants in India have previously made news. Just last year, a Russian woman was brutally assaulted by a female elephant named Gouri when she was riding at the well-known tourist destination, the Amer Fort in Jaipur.
The horrifying action was caught on camera when Gouri used her trunk to seize the visitor, swung her around like a rag doll, and then slammed her to the ground, shattering her leg. During the confusion, someone else was hurt after being flung from the elephant’s back.
A few months prior, the same elephant had assaulted a shopkeeper, shattering his knee and ribs, according to information eventually made public by animal rights organization PETA. They cautioned that elephants kept for amusement frequently endure abuse and may become aggressive when under stress.
What’s the lesson here? Animals in the wild are not props. Maintaining your distance could mean the difference between a fantastic vacation photo and a hospital bed, whether you’re in a forest reserve or a popular tourist destination.
