Wild elephants teased in Bengal to provoke a chase for YouTube views
Hindustan Times
Jul 19, 2024
See link
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/wild-elephants-teased-in-bengal-to-provoke-a-chase-for-youtube-views-101721395487146.html
for photo.
KOLKATA: This is what the video shows: some young men walking on a jungle
path (one of them is providing the commentary); they spot an elephant and
walk close to it till it charges at them, trumpeting; they run till the
elephant stops chasing them. “So, you can all see how it (the elephant)
made us run. It was a long charge. Watch the video till the last, as we
walk on the forest trail,” says the commentary.
The video, now four days old, was shot on a jungle tract in West Bengal’s
Jhargram district and focuses attention on another insidious offshoot of
the content creation epidemic that has taken root around the world.
The YouTube channel it has been uploaded on seems to belong to a niche
genre -- elephant chases. At least two such channels have come up on
YouTube since August 2023 in which young men approach, tease, and are then
chased by wild elephants in the forests of Jharkhand and West Bengal.
One channel is named “Jangal Mahal Elephant Gang”, another is named
“Pukuria Elephant Gang”.
The “Jangal Mahal Elephant Gang” channel was created in August 2023 and has
uploaded 105 such videos. It has around 27,000 subscribers. Pukuria
Elephant Gang was also created in August 2023 and has uploaded 198 videos.
“Friends you will get videos of elephant attacks and other videos related
to elephants on my YouTube channel and Facebook,” the creator of Pukuria
Elephant Gang writes in the introduction.
In one such video, uploaded a month ago, a man can be seen following an
elephant in Jhargram and making the video. In another, a man can be seen
approaching dangerously close to an elephant herd where there are several
calves. The enraged elephants can be seen resorting to mock charges to
chase him off.
The videos were mostly shot in Jhargram district in south Bengal and the
neighbouring state of Jharkhand where man-elephant conflict claims dozens
of lives every year.
Odisha with 322 human deaths between April 2019 to March 2022 accounted for
the highest number of deaths, Jharkhand with 291 deaths came second
followed by West Bengal with 240 deaths. South Bengal has around 194
elephants and Jharkhand has around 679 elephants.
In 2023, the Union environment and forest ministry, in a report, identified
at least 150 elephant corridors across India. While there are 11 corridors
in south Bengal, two are inter-state ones shared with Jharkhand.
A senior official of the West Bengal forest department said that the
channels have already come under their scanner and legal action is being
taken.
“We are aware of it. Legal action is being taken. Cyber crime wing of
police is being contacted to take down the channel,” said the official who
asked not to be named.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/wild-elephants-teased-in-bengal-to-provoke-a-chase-for-youtube-views-101721395487146.html
Wild elephants teased in Bengal to provoke a chase for YouTube views
Hindustan Times
Jul 19, 2024
See link
<https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/wild-elephants-teased-in-bengal-to-provoke-a-chase-for-youtube-views-101721395487146.html>
for photo.
KOLKATA: This is what the video shows: some young men walking on a jungle
path (one of them is providing the commentary); they spot an elephant and
walk close to it till it charges at them, trumpeting; they run till the
elephant stops chasing them. “So, you can all see how it (the elephant)
made us run. It was a long charge. Watch the video till the last, as we
walk on the forest trail,” says the commentary.
The video, now four days old, was shot on a jungle tract in West Bengal’s
Jhargram district and focuses attention on another insidious offshoot of
the content creation epidemic that has taken root around the world.
The YouTube channel it has been uploaded on seems to belong to a niche
genre -- elephant chases. At least two such channels have come up on
YouTube since August 2023 in which young men approach, tease, and are then
chased by wild elephants in the forests of Jharkhand and West Bengal.
One channel is named “Jangal Mahal Elephant Gang”, another is named
“Pukuria Elephant Gang”.
The “Jangal Mahal Elephant Gang” channel was created in August 2023 and has
uploaded 105 such videos. It has around 27,000 subscribers. Pukuria
Elephant Gang was also created in August 2023 and has uploaded 198 videos.
“Friends you will get videos of elephant attacks and other videos related
to elephants on my YouTube channel and Facebook,” the creator of Pukuria
Elephant Gang writes in the introduction.
In one such video, uploaded a month ago, a man can be seen following an
elephant in Jhargram and making the video. In another, a man can be seen
approaching dangerously close to an elephant herd where there are several
calves. The enraged elephants can be seen resorting to mock charges to
chase him off.
The videos were mostly shot in Jhargram district in south Bengal and the
neighbouring state of Jharkhand where man-elephant conflict claims dozens
of lives every year.
Odisha with 322 human deaths between April 2019 to March 2022 accounted for
the highest number of deaths, Jharkhand with 291 deaths came second
followed by West Bengal with 240 deaths. South Bengal has around 194
elephants and Jharkhand has around 679 elephants.
In 2023, the Union environment and forest ministry, in a report, identified
at least 150 elephant corridors across India. While there are 11 corridors
in south Bengal, two are inter-state ones shared with Jharkhand.
A senior official of the West Bengal forest department said that the
channels have already come under their scanner and legal action is being
taken.
“We are aware of it. Legal action is being taken. Cyber crime wing of
police is being contacted to take down the channel,” said the official who
asked not to be named.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/wild-elephants-teased-in-bengal-to-provoke-a-chase-for-youtube-views-101721395487146.html