Featured Image Credit: Manojk / Wikimedia Commons
Topics: Animals, World News
Emma Guinness
The world's 'most dangerous captive elephant' is a lot more dangerous than you might imagine from the name alone.
Thechikkottukavu Ramachandran, who was born in 1964, is in fact so dangerous that it's believed he's killed at least 13 people in his almost 60 years on the planet - as well as three elephants.
The animal is owned by a temple in India and as well as being dubbed the world's most dangerous captive elephant, he's also the tallest captive elephant in the country, coming in at 320 cm tall, as reported by the India Times.
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Thechikkottukavu has appeared in a number of festivals over the years, but his appearances have, on occasion, been cancelled and we can only assume this is down to his fearsome nature.
That, and the fact that he is also partially blind.
The elephant has been a topic of discussion on Reddit today (6 January) after footage of the animal in front of a cheering crowd was shared.
The monstrous elephant, who really does have to be seen to be believed, went far from unnoticed on the website and has prompted quite the discussion.
Reacting to the footage of the elephant, who can be seen wearing a headdress, one Redditor wrote: "Now I understand why ancients made buildings doors so tall."
Another user pointed out that given the animal's kill record, they wouldn't want to see him as part of a cheering crowd.
They wrote: "With stats like those I do not want to be in front of him especially in a crowd causing noise that might irritate him."
This prompted another Redditor to note: "15 implies he hasn't gone wild on a crowd. His numbers would go up fast if he did."
A third Redditor claimed: "Ramachandran began seeing anyone coming close as dangerous after [his] eyesight started failing.
"He pushes people away physically out of fear, deaths are occurring because of that."
A forth, meanwhile, who claimed to visit the area regularly revealed that the animal is a 'temple elephant' used in religious rituals.
"Some of the bigger temples have herds of such elephants, and they’re generally much better taken care of than other 'working' elephants in India," the revealed.
"The temple provides staffs of caretakers taking care of their every need. They’re fed well, bathed regularly, have an on-call vet and generally (at least from the human point of view) live a pampered life.
"IMO the deaths were most likely accidental, probably because in their religious frenzy they forgot that these gentle giants can be dangerous just by being so huge and can squash people like a fly [sic]."
As reported by the BBC, when Thechikkottukavu killed two people at a festival in 2019, the use of elephants for this purpose was temporarily banned, but the ban was later revoked because of protests.