A recent incident filmed at North Bengal’s Jaldapara National Park has left netizens shocked and concerned about the use of open jeeps in safari trips.
A visit to the Jaldapara National Park in North Bengal’s Alipurduar turned into a nightmare for six tourists after their open top safari jeep was charged by two rhinoceros.
Footage of the incident, shared on Twitter by Indian Forest Service officer Akash Deep Badhwawan, shows tourists on the white open gypsy filming rhinos from a distance until the mom emerged from the bushes and started charging the vehicle.
As the car started reversing , a voice was heard shouting in Bangla ‘run run, run fast’. After just backing up just a few metres, the vehicle drifted towards the right of the road and toppled in a ditch.
The harrowing footage was filmed from the car travelling right behind the white gypsy, which topped.
Posting the video, the IFS official wrote: “I think it’s about time guidelines for safety and rescue in adventure sports are implemented in wildlife safaris across the country. Safaris are becoming more of adventure sports now!”
A person on second vehicle on the track was able to film the big female rhino and her calf behind her.
A report by The Telegraph stated that a woman in the safari jeep suffered a fractured hand and the driver and the guide sustained minor injuries in the incident. According to eyewitnesses, the two rhinoceroses seen in the clip appeared after getting into a fight in the bushes adjacent to the safari track.
Their attention shifted towards the tourists, who were clicking photographs and shooting videos.
A rhino attack of this kind has not been seen or heard n the area in the past 15 years, a forest official told media. The driver of the jeep said that he has been in the professional for a long time and never came across such a situation.
The attack took place when the car was moving through forest tracks and had reached an area between JP-V and Torsha-I compartments of Jaldapara, according to The Telegraph.
“We are fortunate that it didn’t attack us the second time when the car toppled. We were all in shock,” the guide, who has suffered a head injury, was quoted as saying by the publicaton.
The incident comes barely two months after two people were badly injured in a rhino attack in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park.
The incident occurred in the Borbeel section of the national park’s Kohora woodland range, while they were repairing a broken road within the park, ANI reported.
Binod Saro, a forest worker at the national park, and Jiban Saro, a local youth, were injured in the attack. The injured were taken to Kohora civil hospital.
