By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, November 10, 2022: As many as 24 elephants enjoyed ‘mahua’, a traditional country liquor, and slept for hours near Shilipada cashew forest in Keonjhar forest in Keonjhar district.

When villagers went inside the forest to prepare the liquor, they found that a herd of elephants had already devoured the water fermented with the intoxicating flowers and were in deep sleep.

The villagers living near Shilipada cashew forest in Keonjhar district saw that a total of 24 jumbos, who were apparently drunk, were sleeping near the place where mahua flowers were kept in water in large pots for fermentation.

The villagers went into the jungle at around 6 am to prepare mahua and found that all the pots were broken and the fermented water was missing. They also found that the elephants were sleeping after consuming the fermented water and got drunk.

Forest department personnel, after reaching the spot in the jungle under the Patana forest range, had to beat drums to wake the herd up. The elephants then went deep inside the forest, said Ghasiram Patra, the forest ranger.

The forest official, however, is not sure whether the elephants got drunk after consuming fermented mahua. Perhaps they were just resting there, he said.

Villagers, on the other hand, insisted that they spotted the elephants sleeping in intoxicated conditions at various places close to the broken pots on Tuesday.