Elephant ‘Gouri’ attacks Russian woman, 2nd incident in two years

Jaipur: The elephant rides at Amber Fort in Jaipur are in the limelight, although for the wrong reason again. An elephant named Gouri attacked a Russian tourist named Maria, on February 13 in the main courtyard of Fort, a video of which surfaced on Wednesday. The footage, captured on CCTV, shows the elephant grabbing the woman in her trunk, swinging her vigorously, and slamming her to the ground. A leg of the tourist was reportedly broken.

The same elephant, who is forced to give tourist rides, had severely injured a male shopkeeper in October 2022.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India has written to Deputy CM Diya Kumari, who also has the charge of Minister for Tourism, Art and Culture, Archaeology and Museums, calling for Gouri to be rehabilitated and for all elephant rides to be replaced with eco-friendly electric or battery-operated vehicles, as was recommended in a report of the committee constituted by the Project Elephant division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, per an order of the Supreme Court of India.