Elephant on expressway causes stir, traffic chaos
The elephant moving all alone caught the attention of drivers who slowed down and stopped to look and several of them clicked pictures too.
Traffic slowed down to an amazed roll on the Lucknow-Agra expressway on Friday, as drivers slowed down to take in the sight of an adult elephant out on an afternoon stroll on the Lucknow-Agra expressway. Needless to say that traffic was hampered for some time.
“The elephant was coming from Unnao and was on its way to Lucknow. Our staff reached the spot soon after getting information and moved the animal to the side of the road to a safe place,” said Ravi K Singh, divisional forest officer, Lucknow, who reached the spot along with the rescue team.
The elephant and its mahout were walking towards Lucknow from Unnao when the mahout stopped for lunch. The elephant waited some time for its mahout to finish eating and later started ambling towards Lucknow, and thus, the two got separated. The elephant moving all alone caught the attention of drivers who slowed down and stopped to look and several of them clicked pictures too. Forest staff stopped the elephant at the entry point of the expressway from Lucknow side and the pachyderm is now in the custody of the forest department in Lucknow.
“Soon after our staff reached the spot, the mahout, Deshraj also reached from Unnao side of the expressway. He told us the elephant had been hired for some ceremonies and was being taken to Lucknow for a private function,” said Singh.
Though no crime was committed, the forest department has called for the papers of ownership from the owner of the elephant.
“We called the owner of the elephant KS Awasthy and are now questioning them to get more information on the use of the elephant. Not many vehicles were on the expressway so there was no traffic congestion and neither was the elephant hurt,” Singh said.
Akhilesh takes elephantine dig
“The saving grace is that the elephant is roaming about on the SP built, strong Agra-Lucknow expressway. Had it gone on the Bundelkhand expressway, the expressway would have failed to bear its weight. The expressway would have collapsed, and the elephant would have got injured”, said Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in a tweet in Hindi along with a video clip of the elephant walking on the Agra-Lucknow expressway.
